When Manisha Rastogi lost her husband Anand to cancer, she believed she had faced the worst blow life could give her. But she was wrong: What followed was a betrayal far more devastating than the dreaded disease itself — an elaborate scam that changed her personal tragedy into a goldmine for fraudsters.
“A few weeks before he died, some people came and claimed they were representatives of a government scheme,” said a teary-eyed Manisha at her modest Kanpur home where Anand’s photograph hangs on a living room wall.
“They took his documents, opened a bank account in his name, and withdrew `17 lakh after he passed away. We did not even know such a policy existed.”
Manisha’s is just one among hundreds of similar stories unfolding across northern India. A sophisticated and heartless insurance racket preying on the dying — especially those from poor and illiterate families — and offering false promises of help, only to vanish with crores of rupees in claim money once the insured died.
The scam came to light in January after a police chase in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district that led to the arrest of two men -Omkareshwar Mishra of Varanasi and Amit from Amroha. In their Scorpio SUV, police stumbled upon 19 debit cards, `11.5 lakh in cash and thousands of documents tied to insurance policies.
Omkareshwar, calling himself an “insurance investigator”, allegedly confessed he was part of a widespread racket that zeroed in on terminally ill individuals. The strategy was chilling in its simplicity and cruelty: Pose as government agents, gain the family’s trust, gather documents, forge Aadhaar and bank details and issue life insurance policies of huge sums.
“We paid a couple of premiums, then waited for the death,” the fraudster reportedly told investigators.
With forged death certificates and fake hospital paperwork, the gang made swift claims. The grieving families — which had been tricked into handing over every document required — never received a rupee.
What made the scam so potent was its network’s spread. Insiders from banks, Aadhaar centres, SIM vendors, panchayats, and even insurance companies allegedly helped smoothen out the whole process.
Investigators believe over `30 crore was siphoned off in just two years. The actual figures, they fear, could exceed `100 crore since the scam started nearly eight years ago.
The scam obviously left a trail of devastation in the bereaved families.
Rashida from Barabanki remembers an ASHA worker who identified herself as Farzana visiting her when the former’s husband Rahmaan was dying. “She said it was a government scheme. I gave the documents. After his death, nothing. No money. No one came back,” she said.
In Moradabad, Satyaveer Singh Yadav was away when his wife Sugarwati died. “My daughter handed over documents to some agents who said they could help us. Later, I found out that the insurance claim had already been taken in her name — without keeping us in the loop.”
In Sambhal’s Gurgaon village, Meeravati’s voice shakes as she recounts her story of falling victim to fraud. “They got my husband’s thumbprints while he was alive. They promised help. Instead, they robbed us.”
According to Sambhal ASP Anukriti Sharma, the scamsters operated with chilling precision. “In nearly 70 per cent of the cases, the cause of death was reported as heart attack,” she says, a statistic that raised red flags.
States affected include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh. Ten major insurance companies are now under scrutiny. Many policies had passed internal audits without raising suspicion.
“This is not just about money. It is a crime of conscience,” said ASP Sharma. “Families were already grieving. Then they were betrayed.”
Investigators are now racing against time-tracking policy numbers, bank trails, and Aadhaar fraud - to bring the culprits to justice and offer families a glimmer of hope.
Back in Kanpur, Manisha looks up at her husband’s framed picture and almost whispers: “I could not save him. But I want justice — For him. For all of us.”
