Twenty years after, three acquitted in ‘cheating’ case

Three men were acquitted by a special CBI court in an alleged cheating case over 20 years after it was registered. The CBI had alleged that the men had made medical insurance claims on behalf of bogus persons by furnishing fake documents and taken compensation amount from an insurance company.

The accused included officials of the insurance company as well as a medical practitioner, who, the CBI alleged had furnished the documents.

One of the defence advocates, Sanjiv Kadam, had submitted that the CBI was not able to prove that the claims were bogus as all procedure was followed. The court had earlier discharged one of the accused and acquitted Devendra Durve, Anil Mali and Mohammed Hanif Ansari of all charges, including cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and common intent. Durve was also acquitted according to relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.