Insurance fraud: Police expect more complaints

Bengaluru: “Only five complaints have so far been registered and we are expecting more complaints against Vishalakshi Bhat, 41, the manager with HDFC Life Insurance at BTM branch who had cheated many people,  including cine stars’, ministers’ relatives and businessmen in the city. Three complaints in the South division in Subramanyapura, J.P. Nagar and Banashankari police station and two in Madivala and Mahalakshmi Layout,” said B.S. Lokesh Kumar, DCP South. “She has not opened up yet and we do not know where she had stacked the money,” the DCP added.

“She has taken lakhs of rupees even from her relatives and friends saying that she had to achieve the targets else she could lose her job and hence we do not think those relatives or friends would come to lodge a complaint against her,” said a senior police officer. Because of this we are unable to ascertain the exact amount of money she has cheated from people, the officer added.

Faking her disappearance to her husband, the Vishalakshi, a native of Neernahalli Village in Sirsi Taluk, initially had gone to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where she had approached an old age home to find accommodation, but she was not admitted there following which she moved to north India. She managed to go to a town in Etawah in Uttar Pradesh and managed to start life afresh with all the money she had acquired, but she was successfully tracked and nabbed by the south division police.

Vishalakshi was a B.Sc graduate and got married few years ago to Srikanth Hegde, who was employee at Titan Company. She initially worked as insurance agent and also reportedly cheated people asking them for depositing premiums.

According to the police officials, Vishalakshi had taken around Rs 30 crore from many people and had said that she would invest it in shares and debentures, which would fetch more profits than investing it in insurance plans. She had approached well placed and rich people, including cine stars, ministers’ relatives, and businessmen to request for investments and deposits in insurance schemes.

The fraud came to light after Visalakshi Bhat duped a city based businessman and made away with Rs 10 lakh. He approached the Madivala police station and lodged a complaint. Soon, a team was formed and the police learnt that Vishalakshi had duped multiple gullible investors.

After repeated attempts to get in touch with his wife, Srikanth Hegde had filed a missing complaint with the police. A complaint was registered at the J.P. Nagar police station limits for cheating minister and cine-star Ambareesh’s wife Sumalatha’s sister Renuka and Ambareesh’s PA Srinivas.

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