MEERUT: Trilok Kumar died twice in six months. That is confirmed by official records from two govt institutions. The insurance payout came twice, too.
Days after TOI uncovered an elaborate insurance scam originating in UP and running into hundreds of crores – where insurance agents, claims officials, panchayat authorities and even doctors and bank staff conspired and colluded to insure the dying and sometimes the dead – investigators now say the fraud runs deeper than initially thought. They say many more agencies and institutions are involved and that from the initial eight states from which they have nabbed some of the accused, they are now looking at “12 states and counting”.
They cited the case of Trilok Kumar in Delhi as an example. The first time Kumar died, it was cancer. That’s what MCD records and receipts from the Nigambodh Ghat cremation office in Delhi showed. A resident of Shaktinagar, Kumar was cremated on June 19, 2024, with an official Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) document listing cancer as the cause of death. That should have been the end of his story. It wasn’t
Six months later, an MCD death certificate surfaced, now claiming Kumar had died on Dec 27, 2024, at Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital. This time it was cardiopulmonary arrest. The paperwork was flawless- stamps, seals, signatures. TOI has the documents in its possession.
“You can’t admit a man who’s already dead, run medical tests on him, and then hand over his body – all in a single day,” said Sambhal ASP Anukriti Sharma, one of the lead investigators in a case that has exposed what police in UP are calling “one of the most calculated and ruthless insurance swindles” in recent memory.
A senior doctor at GB Pant Hospital said: “When a patient arrives in the emergency, we do not waste time on formalities. But if scammers convince a patient to provide a false name in exchange for money, with the promise of guaranteed treatment, there is a possibility that the patient may comply.”
Sharma added, “Since PMJJBY does not require thorough nominee verification, fraudsters took out multiple policies, waited 45 days, then forged death certificates to claim payouts. They used different names and took advantage of minimal checks.”
Sambhal SP Krishan Kumar Bishnoi said, “We have arrested 16 people, including women, so far.”