Fake accident case: Kanchi SP, inspector summoned

CHENNAI: Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police and Somangalam inspector have been directed by the Madras High Court to appear before it on June 6 in connection with alleged registration of a fake road accident case.

Justice PN Prakash gave the directive while passing further interim orders on a petition from Cholamandalam Insurance Company Limited, last week.

According to petitioner, there was a road accident in which one K Mohan (54), employed with MM Forgings at Padappai died while he was riding a two-wheeler on Vandalur-Poonamallee Bye pass road, near Kishkinta bridge on February 9, 2017.

An FIR was registered and upon investigation, a final report was prepared `case closed as undetected'. The FIR and the status of the final report were also uploaded in the CCTNS platform, now part of the Detailed Accident Report regime, mandated by the High Court and maintained by State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) in Chennai.

While so, three persons -- Sasikala (widow of Mohan), Kapil Raj and Rajasekar (sons) - filed three petitions claiming a compensation of `42.35 lakh, `65 lakh and `50 lakh each before the two Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal in Chennai and another in Tiruvallur, instead of the permissible one only. They had alleged that a lorry, insured with the petitioner firm, was involved in the accident, by producing a certified copy of the FIR issued by Somangalam police.

According to petitioner company, the lorry was not involved in the said accident, as per the uploaded FIR and closure of Final Report as 'undetected' case. By a conspiracy, the insured lorry has been falsely implicated for seeking compensation, that too by way of three claim petitions for the death of the one and same person, through three different advocates. Contending that the lorry was not involved in any accident on February 9 as alleged in the FIR and that the FIR was a bogus one, the insurer moved the High Court.

It also wrote a letter to the SCRB to verify the authenticity of the uploaded FIR and by a reply on March 9 last, the bureau clarified that all the FIRs that are available for download by public through "view FIR" facility are genuine. Also the status of any FIR viewed through `FIR Status' service police website reflects the correct facts. Therefore, with regard to the case in Somangalam police station, the FIR generated from the police website may be considered genuine for all purposes.

When the matter came up last week, petitioner's advocate Vijayaraghavan Narasimhan submitted that similar scams in motor accidents claims were brought to the notice of the Supreme Court in 2017 and Special Investigation Teams (SITs) were appointed in Gujarat, Allahabad and Rajasthan to enquire into the entire scam relating to motor accidents claims and further urged that the same type of SIT may be appointed in Tamil Nadu also.

Justice Prakash said for the present it will be appropriate to direct the crime Branch to file a status report on the complaint lodged by the insurance company and directed the Somangalam inspector and Kanchipuram SP to personally appear on June 6 and explain the same. Based on the status report to be filed by the crime branch on petitioner's complaint, the court will consider further course of action. He also said that the beneficial jurisdiction cannot be allowed to be tainted in this manner and it would be most unfortunate if the allegations made by the petitioner were true.