Udupi: Two arrested in fake school bus insurance scam worth crores

Udupi: Police have busted a massive insurance fraud racket involving fake insurance policies for school and college buses, arresting two accused — Rakesh S. (33) from Sasthana Kunjikere Road and Charan Babu Mesta from Sirsi.

The case came to light after a school bus collided with an auto-rickshaw at Hunsemakki in Hombadi-Mandadi village under Kota police station limits on November 25, 2024. During court proceedings, the rickshaw driver sought Rs15.95 lakh compensation from the insurance company. However, an internal investigation by Reliance General Insurance revealed that the bus’s insurance policy was fake.

Following a complaint from the company’s manager, a special police team launched an inquiry and uncovered a large-scale scam. Investigations found that the accused had targeted school and college buses across Kundapura, Kota, Brahmavar, Shirur, and Bhatkal, luring managements with promises of genuine policies while issuing forged ones.

Rakesh, arrested on October 6, confessed that he conspired with Charan Babu, a former SDO at Reliance General Insurance, to create and sell fake policies. Charan was arrested on October 3 and remanded to police custody for further investigation.

According to district SP Hariram Shankar, the accused defrauded schools and colleges of crores by exploiting the fact that school buses rarely meet with accidents. They issued 46 fake policies — 29 from a batch of 86, and another 17 from a set of 111.

Using their past experience with the insurance firm, the duo manipulated old policy PDFs, editing numbers, dates, and vehicle details with PDF editor software before sending them to unsuspecting schools and colleges, police revealed.

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