LIC to conduct probe on HDFC Life issue

HDFC Life mulling legal action against people who spread rumours on social media

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will conduct a complete investigation into an issue over some letters being issued under LIC's name suggesting that private insurer HDFC Life rejected insurance claims of Hemant Karkare. Karkare was a police officer who died during the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Pursuant to these letters, HDFC Life has sent a legal notice to LIC.

"We have received a notice and it will be replied to. After investigations are completed, we will decide on the future course of action," said a senior LIC official. According to HDFC Life, they got access to some letters being distributed on an LIC letterhead by agents which claimed that the private insurer rejected the claim amount of Karkare and only LIC paid the claim.

Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO of HDFC Life said, "It is a blatant lie. We gave the claim to Hemant Karkare's widow in two days time. In fact, the (then) CEO personally visited and handed over the cheque to her."

A message posted on social networking site Facebook on this issue by an individual stated that Hemant Karkare had taken an Insurance Policy with LIC for Rs 25 lakhs and also he had an insurance policy for a similar amount with HDFC Standard Life.

The message had mentioned that allegedly LIC Dadar Branch settled this claim within five days, while HDFC Standard Life Insurance rejected this claim outright saying that Hemant Karkare entered the shooting place risking his life voluntarily and did not take precaution even after knowing that his life will be at risk.

"This is a clear reason why a common man always prefers insurance giant 'LIC' for his Life Insurance Portfolio. Today LIC's claim settlement ratio is 98.6%, which is the world's best," the Facebook post further read.

To this, HDFC Life had responded to the post by saying that it has proactively settled the claim of Hemant Karkare immediately after the news of his unfortunate death in a terrorist attack.

"The news spread by some unscrupulous elements is malafide, false and derogatory and HDFC Life categorically refutes such allegations. Please do not believe in this message/rumour and do not forward or comment on the same as the facts mentioned in the same are not true. HDFC Life salutes the sacrifice made by Hemant Karkare and we will like to assure everyone that HDFC Life does not follow a policy of rejecting claims on flimsy grounds," read the response by the company.

However, subsequent to the response, the earlier post by the individual was shared multiple times on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. Taking a cue from this Chaudhry said that they were also mulling legal action against the person(s) responsible for spreading these rumours on social media.

"We are looking at taking some action against the individuals responsible for spreading this false piece of information. Though it will be a difficult process to find out who did it, we are talking to the concerned officials to decide on how to go about this process," he added.