Advocate, driver get 3 year jail for false insurance claim

A CBI court today sentenced two persons, including an advocate, to three years of imprisonment in a fraudulent insurance claim case.
Additional District Judge and Special Judge for CBI Cases in Coimbatore, Joseph David, also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 each on Erode-based advocate P Thangamani and lorry driver P Manickam.
Another co-accused - a former police inspector Sugumaran - died during pendency of the case and the charges against him were abated, a CBI release said here.
CBI anti-corruption branch (Chennai) on the directions of Madras High Court had registered the case in 2006 accusing Manickam, Sugumaran and Thangamani of entering into criminal conspiracy during 1995 to cheat the National Insurance Company by submitting a false insurance claim.

The prosecution submitted that on August 13, 1995, a car rammed into a road side tree near Nallipalayam in the district, killing three persons and injuring two others.
Abusing his official powers, Sugumaran had helped the two convicted in their attempts to cheat the insurance firm by making false insurance claim on behalf of the family members of those killed.

Since the car had no valid insurance, Sugumaran had falsely implicated a lorry which was not involved in the accident, in order to make an insurance claim. Lorry driver Manickam had admitted before Judicial Magistrate, Kangeyam, that his vehicle caused the mishap. The insurance firm had contested the claims.

When the insurance firm moved the high court seeking a CBI investigation, Thangamani filed a memo stating that he would not press his petition and would withdraw the insurance claim.
However, CBI investigated the case and filed the charge sheet before the Coimbatore court, the release said.