The Rajasthan police’s special operations group (SOG) is investigating multiple ICICI bank and ICICI Prudential officials for allegedly duping hundreds of unsuspecting consumers into buying insurance policies whose premiums they could barely afford.
When Sohandas, a 75-year-old farmer from Udaipur, sold the only piece of land he owned, he hoped the money would help him and his 65-year-old wife with financial security during old age. After building a small house, he deposited the rest of his money (Rs 7,50,000) in a fixed deposit at ICICI bank’s Udaipur branch.
“Nine months later, I started receiving calls from Mumbai asking me to deposit another Rs 7,50,000, failing which I’d lose my original deposit. When I showed the bank documents to a lawyer, I was told it was an insurance policy, which required me to deposit the same amount every year”.
“I don’t know what to do now,” he said. “Both my wife and I are too old to find labour jobs. We have medical bills of Rs 5-7,000 every month. We don’t have 7.5 lakh rupees to deposit every year”.
Sohandas, however, is not alone. There are hundreds like him – a labourer who was relieved of the insurance money she received upon her husband’s death; a government employee whose gratuity melted away; a poor farmer whose agricultural loan was appropriated.
The victims include farmers, labourers and senior citizens from rural areas of southern Rajasthan, including beneficiaries of central government schemes like the Kisan Credit Card and MGNREGA, all of who were duped by officials from ICICI bank into buying insurance policies with huge recurring annual premiums, the police says.
In a preliminary probe, the special operations group (SOG) of the Rajasthan police established the existence of this fraud following a complaint by a whistleblower, Nitin Balchandani, an ex-employee of ICICI Prudential.
Subsequently, in November, the SOG launched a full-fledged investigation, booking company officials for cheating, forging documents, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.
An FIR was registered in the same month under sections 420 (fraud), 467, 468, 471 (forgery), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR, a copy of which The Wire has accessed, specifically names Rohit Saini (Regional Manager, ICICI Prudential, Udaipur), Kamlesh Mehta (Financial Services Consultant, ICICI Prudential Udaipur), Deepak Agarwal (Sales officer, ICICI bank Udaipur) and Satish Kumar Dangi (ICICI employee).
According to the SOG investigation, the bank and its officials misled consumers and violated regulatory norms issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
“These banks and insurance firms have unrealistic monthly targets. In this case, whenever they gave out loans to farmers or other vulnerable applicants, they put a substantial part of the money in insurance policies with recurring premium. In some cases, they put the entire loan amount in such policies. The farmer has no idea. It’s a comprehensive fraud,” inspector general of police (SOG) Dinesh M.N. told The Wire.
Bholi Bai, a wage labourer under MGNREGA, wanted to put the insurance money she received at her husband’s death into a fixed deposit. The officials at ICICI bank’s Kelwa branch sold her an insurance policy instead.
Bholi, a MGNREGA labourer earning about Rs 3000 a month, thought her money was safe in a FD since she believed “bank mein kuch galat nahin hota (the bank could do no wrong)”.
I got insurance of Rs 1,00,000 at my husband’s death. I wanted an FD but the bank put my money into an insurance policy. I realised it months later when my mamaji (uncle) saw the bank documents. When I approached them, they told me I had to deposit Rs 50,000 every year only then I would get my money back,” she says.
The Wire sent detailed questionnaires to both companies asking for their comments on the pre-investigation and subsequent FIR. Both companies, however, refused to respond despite repeated emails and phone calls to their officials as well as Adfactors PR, the agency handling their public relations portfolio.
The modus operandi
ICICI and ICICI Prudential officials in the state allegedly used their large database of account holders in rural areas to target unsuspecting consumers, especially farmers, labourers and senior citizens.
Typically, the officials asked the consumers – who would either want to deposit money or seek loans – to put a part of their money/loan into a fixed deposit (FD). They would then make the applicants sign policy documents written in English, claiming they were for an FD. Since most of their customers couldn’t read or write English, they would have no idea about the product they were signing up for.
Manohar Das Vaishnav, who trusted the bank with his retirement money, was shocked when he learnt he had been sold an insurance plan which required him to pay a premium of Rs 1,00,000 every year.
“I got Rs 4,00,000 as gratuity from my employer on retirement. The money was deposited in the ICICI branch in Fatehnagar Udaipur. They got me to sign a form written in English saying it was for a fixed deposit. But they withdrew Rs 1,00,000 from my account and put it in an insurance plan,” says Vaishnav (63), a retired employee of Tilam Sangh, a state run oil company.
The SOG investigation found several irregularities by bank officials – faking age (lowered) and annual income (increased) of applicants, making calls to ICICI call centres posing as the consumer to establish consent, faking witnesses and not cooperating with the police.
“So far, our investigation has revealed fraud and serious violation of IRDAI guidelines. The bank and the insurance authorities also did not cooperate with the investigation and tried to mislead us. The scale of this fraud is massive,” Mahaveer Singh Ranawat, additional SP (SOG) who conducted the preliminary investigation, told The Wire.
The pre-probe established the connivance of officials from ICICI bank, and ICICI Prudential Insurance company.
