3 held among 29 booked for cheating LIC policy holders

Even as the LIC policy holders staged a protest in front of the office of divisional office of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) at Bannimantap in Mysore on Wednesday, alleging cheating to the tune of Rs 25 lakh, the Belur police claim to have arrested three accused in the case a fortnight ago.

According to Belur police, three accused in the case Chidanand, Lingarajaiah and Santosh Kumar of Tiptur in Tumkur district were arrested on May 28 and have been remanded in judicial custody. A total of 29 including the three arrested are booked under the case, the police added.

Chidanand is the secretary of Samanvaya, a NGO, while Lingarajaiah is the president of Baligondu Guri Rural Development (BGD) and Santosh Kumar is the secretary.

The said NGOs had collected Rs 100 from the villagers of Hassan and Mandya districts towards two policies of LIC of India under ‘LIC micro insurance’.

Samanvaya had collected Rs 11.15 lakh between 2008 and 2012, while BGD had collected Rs 13.83 lakh during the same period. However, it came to light that both the NGOs had failed to remit the amount to LIC to derive the benefit.
Following this, over 50 protesters, majority among them women from K R Pet, Belur, Hassan and nearby places staged a protest in front of LIC divisional office in Mysore on Wednesday morning.

In his reply, the senior divisional officer P Sridhar had clarified that his office was aware of the fraud and that a complaint has been lodged with Belur police on May 23, seeking action against the accused.

The remaining 26 accused in the case, representatives of the NGOs who collected the amount towards the insurance policy belong to Tiptur, Davangere, Harihara and Turuvekere.