Shivajinagar Police have arrested three individuals for orchestrating a fraudulent Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) policy scam from a fake call center in Wakdewadi. The suspects duped victims by promising high returns on fake LIC policies, using forged IDs and fake company names to appear legitimate.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Shankar Karkun Pokharkar (42) from Katraj, Mehfooz Mehboob Siddiqui (40) from Aundh, and Ashish Ramdas Mankar (48) from Wagholi. Authorities revealed that Pokharkar, the mastermind of the operation, had previously worked as an LIC agent. In 2021, he convinced a victim in Shivajinagar to invest Rs5,04,000, promising substantial returns. After the victim made the payment, Pokharkar became unreachable, prompting the victim to file a police complaint in 2023.
Shivajinagar Cyber Crime officials Adesh Chalwaadi and Tejas Chopade conducted a raid on the fake call center, uncovering critical evidence. The police seized 150 SIM cards, 15 mobile phones, 29 data registers, 12 ATM cards, 5 PAN cards, 2 computers, and 35 fake rubber stamps from reputed companies. Additionally, they found bank accounts linked to 30 different banks, along with cheque books.
Investigations revealed that Pokharkar exploited client data from his previous LIC job to execute the scam. The police believe there may be more victims, and further investigation is underway to uncover the full extent of the fraud.
