Son fakes parents’ death to claim compensation

The State administration is perturbed over a complaint according to which a West Bengal-based person fraudulently secured an ex-gratia payment of Rs 7 lakh while declaring that his parents died during the Kedarnath deluge. The complainant claimed that his parents had not died during the Kedarnath disaster. He even submitted documentary evidences in support of his charge.  

In view of the seriousness of the issue, the finance and disaster management secretary, Amit Singh Negi has written a letter to the chief secretary West Bengal and requested him to investigate the matter in the light of the evidences submitted by the complainant.

In a complaint submitted on June 11 this year, one Arvind Jindal, a resident of Kolkata, alleged that Manish Jindal based in Siliguri of West Bengal had declared that his father Mohan Jindal and mother Meena Jindal were on a pilgrimage to Kedarnath when the disaster struck the area on 13/ 14 June 2013.

Manish Jindal had registered the name of his parents in the list of the missing pilgrims from West Bengal. The complainant claimed that Manish had fraudulently managed to get the compensation against death of his parents in  the Kedarnath disaster. Arvind in his complaint submitted a copy of an agreement signed by Mohan Jindal as director of a company on October 4, 2014, about a year and half after his death in papers.

After the receipt of the complaint, the designated officer for birth and death registration of Rudraprayag found that the death certificates of Mohan and Meena Jindal had been issued on November 17, 2013 by his office.

The certificates were issued after Manish had lodged an FIR about his missing parents at Ukhimath police station of Rudraprayag district on June 27, 2013. The police filed a Final Report (FR) in the case on October 27, 2013 in which it was mentioned that the couple had gone missing during the Kedarnath disaster.

Subsequently, a sum of Rs 7 lakh as compensation for death of both his parents was given to Manish Jindal from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).

The designated officer, birth and death registration, N S Dangi accepted that the complaint in the case has been received by the office and the complainant has provided documents in support of his complaint.