Gujarat: Doctor, 3 others held for COVID-19 insurance fraud

A doctor and three others wereheld for allegedly trying to claim insurance with the help ofbogus COVID-19 medical records in Vadodara in Gujarat, policesaid on Monday.

The others arrested in the case comprise an insuranceagent, an employee in the administration department of aprivate hospital and a policy holder, an official said.

''Dr Anil Patel of Balaji Hospital, insurance agentPravin Parmar, Dipak Tiwari who works in the administrationdepartment of Care Hospital, and policy holder MiteshPrajapati have been arrested,'' the official said.

Patel and Parmar had used bogus medical records of twopeople to claim insurance to the tune of Rs 4.5 lakh, he said.

Tiwari would tamper with the sticker of COVID-19 testsamples and paste names of policy holders, and when thesesamples returned negative, he would tamper with the writing tomake them ''positive'', the JP Nagar police station officialsaid.

''He got the names of policy holders from insuranceagent Parmar. Prajapati was held after he submitted bogusdocuments through this ring to get insurance claims passed forhimself and his wife,'' he added.

While the present case was lodged in Gotri policestation, Patel and Parmar were held in a similar case by JPNagar police a few days ago, he added.

They have been charged under under IPC sections 465 ,467, 468 and 471 related to forgery, 406 (criminal breach oftrust), and 420 (cheating), he said.