PUNE: A judicial magistrate court has issued notice to Axis Bank and five of its officials in a cheating and forgery case while denying insurance claim after death of a home loan borrower.
The notice was issued on a private complaint by Arnol Shrikrishna Bahadarpurkar, a resident of Dhankawadi, regarding refusal of giving benefits of Life Insurance by dishonestly cheating, making forged and false documents and criminal conspiracy.
The complainant had taken housing loan from the bank with cover of property and life insurance under a special scheme of the bank, which was subsequently denied.
As per the complaint, Bahadarpurkar and his wife Urmila obtained a housing loan from Axis Bank in November 2015. The bank allegedly promised the complainant that under a special scheme of a tie-up with Max Life and Tata Insurance, he will get property and life insurance equivalent to the loan amount.
“The bank officials also insisted that such insurance is mandatory and all formalities for such insurance are needed to be completed through their bank. They also promised that under this special insurance scheme, in case any or both of the borrowers die during the repayment period of loan, remaining balance loan shall be waived off and shall be paid by the insurance company. The bank and its staff also told me that there is such a tie-up between the bank and insurance company, and all documentation and formalities of such insurance should be completed through Axis Bank. After completing the formalities, the bank disbursed the home loan and we purchased a flat,” stated Bahadurpurkar, who is a project manager with a private firm.
Bahadarpurkar and Urmila got married in 2011. Later, she joined a company where he worked as an accountant. The couple were staying on rent in Dhankawadi area. “Urmila wanted to have our own flat in the same housing society, therefore we took the loan and purchased a flat. We had paid few installments also. Sadly, Urmila died on January 10, 2016. I informed the bank about this mishap and asked about insurance related documents like policies etc, as promised in the loan approval letter. The accused persons initially replied that insurance documents shall be given in some time but were never given, irrespective of several follow-ups. Later, they told me that the loan case was without life insurance benefits, as the insurance policy is not there,” Bahadarpurkar further added.
Bahadarpurkar approached police with documents to prove that the loan was with life insurance, and that the bank made false documents and made alterations in the loan approval letter by way of forgery, and denied his claim. After prelimnary enquiry, police advised him to file case in the consumer forum.
However, Bahadarpurkar felt cheated and filed a private complaint in the judicial magistrate court against Axis Bank, Ganeshkhind Road, and its staffers Rabul Thombre, Aparna, Vivek Sharma, loan department operations head Vishnu Patnaik, customer support executive and S Mary Priyanka, customer support employee.
After going through the complaint and all the documents submitted by Bahadarpurkar, judicial magistrate (first class) NA Patel issued process against all the accused persons for offences under sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for harming reputation), 471 (using forged document as genuine), 420 (cheating), 422 (dishonestly or fraudulently preventing debt being available for creditors), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
