Page 47 - Insurance Times December 2021

Cannot be ignored solution. With modern telecom, computation and
technological facilities, adequately designed insurance
Against India’s disaster history, its geophysical position and
products providing cover for the core economic property (both
the vigorously changing climatic conditions across the globe,
individual use and public utility) can help the government
the country cannot afford to take natural disasters lightly.
develop a resilient response mechanism. This in turn can
Sustainable development must consider investing in disaster
accelerate the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
risk reductions, ex ante as well as ex post, in a cost-effective
issues playing a crucial role in disaster financing mechanism.
manner.
Low insurance penetration in India must be addressed All these would necessitate concerted efforts by all
primarily by motivating people not to become fatalistic and stakeholders including, principally, IRDAI and insurers. IRDAI
increasing their insurance awareness and literacy. Insurers and insurers should formulate a framework with weather
must be prodded by IRDAI to market specific disaster module-based and parametric insurance solutions to bring
insurance products for rural areas, which are always the adequate financial relief to endusers. Finally, the government
worst-hit, and settle the claims lodged swiftly and may consider instituting a guarantee fund for insurers
appropriately. Increasing per capita income would incentivise incurring ‘catastrophic’ losses due to payment of claims on
people to consider risk-transfer mechanism as a major account of natural disasters. (Source : Business Line)

Man uses cobra to stage death for insurance payout
Using a cobra as a “murder weapon”, a 54-year-old man in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district staged his own death by
killing a destitute man in order to claim a $5 million (Rs 37.5 crore) life insurance policy with a US-based insurance firm.
However, the plot unraveled when the insurance firm sent an investigator to make inquiries, and over the last week,
police arrested the accused and four of his accomplices.
According to police, Prabhakar Bhimaji Waghchaure had been living in the US for 20 years, and after returning to India in
January, he started living at Rajur village in Ahmednagar district.
On April 22, officials at Rajur police station in Ahmednagar received a report from the local government hospital about
Waghchaure’s death.
When a police constable went to the hospital, a man who identified himself as Waghchaure’s nephew, Praveen, identified
the body. Another person, identified as Rajur resident Harshad Lahamge, too identified the body as that of Waghchaure.
However, the plot began to unravel when officials from the insurance firm investigating Waghchaure’s life insurance claim
contacted Ahmednagar authorities seeking more information on his death.
As police were unable to trace any relative of the deceased, they started looking at Waghchaure’s call records, which
revealed that not only was he alive, he had posed as Praveen at the hospital. Soon afterwards, Waghchaure was placed
under detention.
Ahmednagar SP Manoj Patil on Monday said, “The insurance claims investigator had started digging deep into the claim
on Waghchaure’s death because he had fraudulently claimed the death of his wife for a life insurance claim in 2017. His
wife is alive… Waghchaure and other conspirators hatched an elaborate plan. Probe has revealed that they
procured a cobra from a snake rescuer. They found a destitute person, with similar looks as that of Waghchaure, and had
killed him with the bite of the cobra. Waghchaure himself posed as his nephew Praveen and reported the snakebite
death.”

Police have now identified the deceased as Navnath Yashwant Aanap (50), who had been living in the same area. On April
22, the accused forcefully took Aanap to a secluded location where a snake handler identified as Harish Kulal induced the
cobra to bite Aanap.
Later, Waghchaure, posing as Praveen, identified the body in the hospital, and the last rites were performed with only the
suspects in case in presence. Days later, after receiving the death certificate, Waghchaure moved the US-based firm for
the life insurance claims. (Source : The Indian Express)

The Insurance Times, December 2021 47