Mangaluru: Man jailed for using wife’s fake death certificate for insurance fraud

Mangaluru: A local court here sentenced a man to prison for claiming insurance money using a fake death certificate of his wife.

Shivarama Shenoy (55) was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine by the 2nd CJM court here for insurance fraud.

Sivarama Shenoy claimed himself to be the nominee for the two LIC policies named after his wife Sumana Shenoy at the life insurance office at the Popular Building on KS Rao Road in the city. He had produced his wife’s fake death certificate on 20-8-2008 while she was still alive. Later, he had received a sum of Rs 3,96,922 from both insurance policies combined by cheque.

He had parked the money received into a joint account of himself and another person named Bharti alias Bhagyalakshmi who is the second accused in the case.

After unearthing the fraud, Ganesh Kamath, the then branch manager of the Life Insurance Corporation,  had lodged a complaint at the Port Police Station.

After examining evidence and arguments, the court held the defendant guilty as charged and pronounced the sentence. The case against the second accused Bharti has been separated as she is still absconding. Public Prosecutor Mohan Kumar B argued the case for the prosecution.