Maharashtra: Retired government official duped of Rs 16 lakh

KOLHAPUR: The Satara police has registered an offence against seven people, including four women, for allegedly cheating a retired state government employee of Rs 16 lakh by promising mediclaim reimbursement.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that the suspects, who promised mediclaim reimbursement, claimed to be working for a fake insurance company. The company was operating out of Delhi but its contact coordinates are not operational now. They allegedly cheated Madhukar Mahadeo Bhandare (70), a resident of Koyna colony.
Bhandare received a phone call on his landline on January 5 this year and a woman introduced herself as Pratiksha Singh, a representative of an insurance company. She told Bhandare that she had received his mediclaim file and wanted some documents to approve it. She also told Bhandare that he needed to deposit Rs 24,780 to get the amount of Rs 1.65 lakh.
The woman then instructed Bhandare to send a cheque of the said amount to an address in Delhi. Bhandare sent all the required documents and cheque to the address.
Bhandare, few days later, got another phone call from one woman who identified herself as Swati Singh and asked him to deposit Rs 71,000 in the account of Reeta Singh. She told Bhandare that all the amount he was paying was refundable. Bhandare, later got phone calls from different people who identified themselves as Sanjay Gupta, Vinit Mehta, Rahul Shrivastav and Avantika Shrivastav. All of them asked him pay different amount, making the same promises.
Bhandare paid Rs 16.04 lakh till June 25 this year. The suspects again asked him to deposit Rs five lakh in some account. This made Bhandare suspicious and he approached the police.