CBI books LIC official

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 6: The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has booked a Development Officer (DO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for issuing fake LIC policies to the people after charging premium from them. He had also issued cheques to some of the policy holders from his own account, which bounced.
A CBI team today conducted searches in the house of LIC DO Ved Prakash, posted in Branch Office Doda, at Doda City and seized a number of documents including policies etc.
Official sources said the CBI registered a Regular Case No. 4/2013 against Ved Prakash after receiving a number of complaints from the residents of Doda, Kishtwar and Jammu that the policies of LIC issued to them by Prakash turned out to be fake. Even the cheques issued to the complainants from his own account by the LIC officer on maturity bounced.
The CBI conducted preliminary inquiry into the case and found evidence in them. The agency verified a number of policies issued to the people and found them fake.
After this, the CBI registered a regular case against the LIC official under Sections 420, 409 RPC and Prevention of Corruption Act of Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior Prosecuting Officer SK Bhat obtained a search warrant from the CJM after which searches were today conducted at the residence of Ved Prakash at Doda City during which fake policies and other documents were recovered.
A CBI team headed by Inspector Lalit Kumar was investigating the case under the supervision of SP CBI, Jammu, Dr Armaandeep Singh.
Sources said the LIC official had promised “benefits’’ to the people under the LIC policies, which actually didn’t exist in the LIC schemes. The people were lured by the policies and they paid amount to the DO, which he allegedly embezzled instead of depositing with the Life Insurance Corporation.
The LIC official had given fake policy documents to the people after taking money from them. After the policies matured, the official have them cheques from his own account but they bounced, leaving the policy holders high and dry.
The policy holders approached the DO but he started evading them, which compelled the complainants to knock doors of the CBI, which investigated the complaints and then registered a case against the accused.
The CBI also conducted searches in his house and seized more policies and documents, which indicated that the official had to issue more such policies to the people to dupe them of their amount.
The CBI was in the process of working out the exact amount taken by Ved Prakash from the people for issuing them fake policies.
Sources said the CBI has not arrested the accused official so far but would be called for questioning initially. However, his arrest was not ruled out.