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3 held as fake insurance racket busted in Patiala

PATIALA: A day after the police busted a gang involved in cheating bank customers, it has now arrested three members of another gang involved in defrauding people by promising good returns from fake insurance schemes.

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 20

A day after the police busted a gang involved in cheating bank customers, it has now arrested three members of another gang involved in defrauding people by promising good returns from fake insurance schemes. The gang members had connived to dupe a city resident of more than Rs 49 lakh on the pretext of investments in various funds and insurance companies. 

Briefing mediapersons, SP (Investigation) Harmeet Singh Hundal said a team arrested three members of the gang following a complaint by retired teacher Lakha Singh, a resident of Banbhori village in Sangrur.  

“In 2014, a girl offered Lakha Singh an insurance policy in HDFC Bank for three years. After some days, the girl again called him up. She told Lakha Singh that if he invested Rs 20,000 in ‘Power-99 scheme’, it will ensure a monthly pension for him. Consequently, he deposited the money,” said Hundal. 

Initially, Lakha Singh’s returns were regular. “Within six months, he invested Rs 49.25 lakh in various schemes. His money was deposited in dubious accounts and withdrawn,” said the police.  

The police arrested Gagan Sachdeva of Ambala Cantonment and Amit Kumar of Japur, who were sent on a eight-day police custody. The third accused, Deepesh Goyal, who runs a call centre in Chandigarh is yet to be produced in the court after his arrest on Tuesday. The accused have told the police that they would target persons with good bank balance and after getting initial details, Deepesh would ask his call centre staff to talk to customers about investments. 

“The call centre would employ youngsters who would offer products and investments to consumers. We are trying to verify if the staffers were also involved in the scam or were not aware of the modus operandi of the gang,” said Hundal. 

“They had opened many fake companies and would take out the money using multiple bank accounts. While Deepesh kept 60 per cent of the profit, the other two accused pocketed 20 per cent each,” he said. A case has been registered at the Division Number 2 police station. 

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