Rs.1.52 crore LIC scam unearthed at Bhadrachalam branch, two agents booked

A Rs.1.52 crore scam has been uncovered at the LIC branch in Bhadrachalam, where 39 fraudulent death claims were made using fake certificates and non-existent policyholders. Two agents have been booked under various sections of BNS

Kothagudem: A major scam has come to light at the Bhadrachalam Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) branch in the district, where a large number of life insurance policies were claimed using fake death certificates and in the names of non-existent policyholders.

Two LIC agents, A Venkateshwarlu and his wife Malyala Saraswathi of Sitarampuram in Aswapuram mandal, allegedly duped the corporation of Rs.1.52 crore through 39 fraudulent death claims using fake death certificates over the past several years. The scam was unearthed after branch officials launched an internal investigation when they found that a policyholder, Bhukya Sriramulu of Sarapaka in Burgampad mandal, made a fraudulent death claim of Rs.10 lakh while he was alive, after newspapers reported the incident.

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He duped the corporation using a fake death certificate obtained from Kukunooru, Eluru district in Andhra Pradesh in December 2024, and the incident came to light in February 2026. The amount was repaid by LIC agent Yakoob Pasha and others. In a complaint lodged with Bhadrachalam police, LIC branch manager KNVSK Chakravarthy said that during the investigation, they found the death claims of 39 policies to be suspicious. The place of death mentioned in the certificates was different from the given residential addresses.

Of the 39 policies, 33 were introduced by Venkateshwarlu while six were introduced by his wife Saraswathi. The modus operandi was that in 18 cases, death claims were made while the policyholder was alive. In eight cases, policyholders had died and policies were taken after their death. The death claims were made using fake certificates with wrong dates. In nine cases, LIC policies were taken in the names of individuals who did not exist at all. After paying the premium for three years, fake death certificates were produced to make death claims. In some cases, the nominees were not ready to give information about the policyholder, Chakravarthy said.

He said the investigating officials visited the houses of policyholders and took photos with GPS location, while some refused and some escaped. CI M Nagaraju registered a case under Sections 316(2), 316(4) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery), 338, and 340(2) of BNS.