A 54-year-old man in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district staged his own death using a cobra 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 fraud was revealed when the insurance firm sent an investigator to make inquiries, and over the last week, police arrested the accused — identified as Prabhakar Bhimaji Waghchaure — and four of his accomplices, the Indian Express reported.
Police said 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.
Three months later, on April 22, officials at Rajur police station in Ahmednagar received a report from the local government hospital about Waghchaure’s death.
A man who identified himself as Waghchaure’s nephew, Praveen, identified the body in the presence of a police constable. Another person, identified as Harshad Lahamge of Rajur too identified the body as that of Waghchaure. The preliminary medical report stated the cause of death was a snakebite and the body was handed over to the nephew for last rites.
However, trouble started when officials from the insurance firm investigating Waghchaure’s life insurance claim contacted Ahmednagar authorities, seeking details of his death.
The first stop for the police was Waghchaure’s house in Rajur where a neighbour said she had not heard of any snakebite incident but had seen an ambulance at the house. The cops then quizzed Lahamge, who claimed that Praveen had died of coronavirus.
Thisled the police to Waghchaure’s call records, which revealed that not only was he alive but he had posed as Praveen at the hospital. Soon afterwards, Waghchaure was placed under detention.
Speaking about the incident, Ahmednagar SP Manoj Patil said the insurance claims investigator started probing into the claim on Waghchaure’s death because he had fraudulently claimed the death of his wife for a life insurance claim in 2017 when she was, in fact, alive.
“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,” the cop told the Indian Express.
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 on the toe. After he died, Aanap’s body was taken to Waghchaure’s residence, where an ambulance was called.
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