The insurance company officials find the living person alive in Hassan

Bhatkal: Police visited the Town Panchayat at Jali in the taluk on Thursday to probe the complaint that the town panchayat had issued a death certificate of a living person and helped him avail insurance claim of Rs two crore.

One Meenakshi B H of Hassan had submitted an application to Jali town panchayat on August 21, 2021 seeking issue of the death certificate of one H V Harshavardhan. Along with the application, a document related to the treatment given to Harshvardhan at a private hospital in Bengaluru was attached. In the document attached, it was mentioned that Harshavardhan had undergone treatment for chest pain on July 21.

Following the application, the town panchayat staff issued a death certificate in the name of Harshavardhan on September 13 stating that he had died at Janganagadde on July 27.

After getting the death certificate, Meenakshi had filed an application to get the insurance (said to be in the name of Harsvardhan ) claim amount of Rs two crore from a reputed institution.

Shocked officers

To process the claim, the insurance company launched an investigation. When they enquired with the family members of Harshavardhan in Hassan, they found that he was alive.  The officers found that the person mentioned ‘dead’ at Jali in Bhatkal on July 27 has launched a channel named ‘Vardhana’ in Hassan on November 9 and an influential minister had inaugurated the channel. 

Confirming that the person was alive, the officials visited the town panchayat and took the officials to the task for issuing a fake death certificate. However, the town panchayat officials gave them an address mentioned in the application. When checked, the officials found that a fake address was given in the application.

In the application, the woman who availed the certificate had mentioned that Harshavardhan was a resident of Jali Janganagadde. Along with that, she had also attached an Aadhar card with a local address. But according to the residents of Jali, Harshavardhan was neither a resident of Jali nor any surrounding place.

Town Panchayat Executive Officer Ramachandra Varnekar confirmed that the town panchayat had officially issued the certificate. A case has been filed at the local police station in this regard. The investigation is on and the truth will be known soon.