A government medical officer and four police officers are among nine arrested in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, for allegedly orchestrating an elaborate insurance fraud scheme involving a fake road accident death to claim ₹5 million.
Police have arrested nine persons, including a government medical officer and four policemen, for allegedly conspiring to get insurance claim amount of ₹5 million from a company by wrongly showing that a man died in a road accident in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, officials said.
During the probe, it came to light that the man had actually died as a result of a liver ailment in 2024, while his family and other accused tried to dupe the private insurance company by forging papers to support their claim that he died in a road accident in 2025, they said.
"This insurance fraud came to light in Chalisgaon in north Maharashtra's Jalgaon, where the group of accused allegedly tried to obtain ₹5 million insurance by creating a fake road accident story," a police official said on Tuesday.
The insurance claim was filed by victim Rajendra Shalindar Jadhav's wife Aruna, he said.
As per her claim, Rajendra was travelling on a motorcycle from Dahiwad to Malegaon in the district when an SUV hit his vehicle, in which he received major injuries. He was taken to Chalisgaon Rural Hospital where he allegedly died during treatment. A case was also registered at Mehunbare police station in connection with the accident, he said.
But when the insurance company investigated the claim, it found many discrepancies. The investigation brought to light that Rajendra Jadhav actually died in February 2024, the police official added.
It was also found that the real cause of his death was severe liver disease and not an accident as was claimed. Besides, the date of death mentioned on his photo kept at his home was February 23, 2024. His death was not recorded in the gram panchayat's register, he said.
During the probe, it was also found that the insurance policies were taken from around 10 companies in his name. This indicated a planned conspiracy to claim insurance money using a fake accident case.
After a through investigation, police registered a case of fraud against the deceased's wife, his brother Mithun Jadhav, medical officer of Chalisgaon Rural Hospital Mandar Karamblekar, police personnel Mahendra Patil, Sunil Nikam, Ravindra Battise and Sachin Nikam, along with insurance agents Praveen Patil and Prem Patil and they were arrested on Sunday, he said.
Investigators believe the group tried to claim about ₹75 million from multiple insurance companies by adopting this modus operandi, he said.
The fraud was exposed because an insurance officer carefully checked the claim and noticed inconsistencies, which led to the investigation, the official added.