Insurance Claim Fraud: Rajkot Police Book Man for Setting Car on Fire
Insurance claim fraud can lead to claim rejection, investigations and legal action, highlighting the need for insurers to verify suspicious claims carefully.
Insurance claim fraud can involve staged accidents, false damage claims and deliberate attempts to mislead insurers.
Insurance Claim Fraud: Gondal Taluka police in Rajkot district have registered a case against a 26-year-old man on allegations that he deliberately set fire to his own overturned car in an attempt to secure a fraudulent insurance payout.
According to police, the accused, Deep Virdiya, a resident of Patidad village, was driving from Gondal toward Patidad on the evening of September 4. At around 5 pm, he reportedly lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a turn near Patidad, causing the car to veer off the road and overturn into a roadside ditch. Virdiya was unhurt in the accident and was pulled out of the vehicle by local residents who had rushed to the spot.
Roughly six hours later, at around 11 pm, Virdiya allegedly returned to the accident site along with two other individuals. Soon after, smoke was spotted rising from the vehicle, prompting bystanders to alert the fire department. Fire personnel arrived at the scene and extinguished the blaze.
In the immediate aftermath, the fire was believed to have been caused by an electrical short circuit, and the resulting damage to the vehicle was estimated at approximately Rs 7 lakh.
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Investigation Points to Deliberate Insurance Claim Fraud
Police said a closer investigation into the incident revealed a different sequence of events. Officers found that petrol had been carried to the accident site, poured over the vehicle, and then set alight. Investigators further traced the fuel to a nearby cement factory in Patidad, from where it had allegedly been procured.
Based on these findings, investigators believe the fire was started intentionally to make the damage appear accidental, with the aim of filing an insurance claim on the vehicle. Police also allege that Virdiya misled investigating officers by claiming the fire had broken out due to a short circuit, when in fact it had been deliberately ignited.
Insurance Claim Fraud: Charges Filed Under the BNS
Following the investigation, Gondal Taluka police have booked Virdiya under three sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS): Section 326(F), which pertains to causing grievous hurt through the use of fire or a heat-related weapon; Section 318(4), relating to cheating with the intent to dishonestly obtain property; and Section 240, which addresses furnishing false information to a public servant.
The case remains under investigation, with police examining the roles of the two individuals who allegedly accompanied Virdiya to the site on the night of the fire.
