Fearing the District Welfare Officer (DWO) would take legal action against them for forgery in Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY) of the life Insurance Corporation of India (lIC), three persons, including a woman, returned Rs1.2l to lIC.
According to DWO Charulata Mallick, three persons, who returned Rs 30,000 each that they had availed by forgery under the JBY were identified as Sangita Bahulia and Pitambar Sahu of Derabish block and Bhabagrahi Bhadra of Kusunpur under Garadapur block.
While Bhabagrahi Bhadra managed to get insurance coverage of Rs30,000 each in the name of his wife and father by furnishing fake death certificates, Sangita Bahulia and Pitambar Sahu allegedly managed to obtain the insurance coverage of Rs30,000 each by producing fake death certificates of their fathers.
Apart from this, one Prakash Kumar Routray, a dealing assistant of the District Welfare Office was transferred on administrative ground to Marshaghai tehsil for his involvement in the fraud.
According to sources, the lIC in 2007 had introduced the JBY to provide insurance worth Rs30,000 on a deposit of Rs100 per year against natural death and Rs75, 000 against death in accident. The lIC office had entrusted the DWO as the nodal officer in order to verify the applications with original death certificate copy of the claimants for insurance.
However, the greed to grab the doles has made some lIC agents and unscrupulous persons enrol the names of several fake and ghost persons by depositing Rs100 each in their names to avail the benefit under the scheme. The fraud came to the fore after the DWO verifying the document came to know that insurance sum was withdrawn against several ghost beneficiaries. DWO Mallick said as per an inquiry report, she found that lIC agent Bipin Behari Jena of Mohamedpur under Garadapur block allegedly submitted death certificates of two beneficiaries Nisamani Rout and Nirodh Rout of Kusunpur village under Garadapur block in Patkura police station and got the insurance benefit on March, 2013. After discovering the fraud, Mallick lodged an FIR at Patkura police against Jena, who was later arrested.
Mallick revealed that insurance benefit in as many as 60 fake cases was availed by several persons. Meanwhile, the DWO issued notice to those persons and asked them to deposit the amount.