Planted drivers, witnesses: Ambala lawyer takes courts for a ride over mishap claims

A CBI Special Judicial Magistrate’s court in Panchkula has taken 17 years to convict 15 people for forging documents, impersonating people and planting chauffeurs of vehicles as well as the vehicles themselves to obtain compensations from insurance firms in motor accident claim cases. Nine of the accused died during the endless trial.

The court revealed an elaborate scheme in which a group of lawyers and their associates, like clerks and munshis, manipulated the Motor Accident Claim Tribunals (MACTs) — which are presided over by session judges — to give compensations in hit-and-run cases.

The modus operandi was simple enough. Vehicles that had nothing to do with the accidents were used by the scamsters to claim compensation from hit-and-run cases — the mishaps were real, just that the vehicles involved were different, while the drivers of the vehicles and the witnesses were planted.

The CBI investigated only 25 such motor accident claim cases, although the then Ambala district judge — the first anonymous complaint in the matter had come from Ambala as long back as April 2002 — said that the scam may run into “hundreds of cases”.

The total compensation in these 25 cases investigated by the CBI amounted to Rs 1.11 crore, although with a nine per cent increase in interest, the amount goes up to approximately Rs 1.5 crore.

Significantly, one factor was common in all the compensation cases — they were all filed through advocate SPS Chauhan, who also hailed from Ambala.

Over 17 years, which is how long the trial took, and after the deposition of as many as 107 prosecution witnesses, CBI Special Judicial Magistrate Anil Kumar Yadav sentenced Chauhan, his junior VP Kaushal and two others to three-year rigorous imprisonment on November 11. Another 11 persons were sentenced to six-month imprisonment on the same day.

It all began with a letter to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 6, 2002. Bhagat Ram of Ambala, whose address was unspecified, claimed that advocate Chauhan was earning millions by arranging “hired” vehicles and drivers in hit-and-run cases to obtain compensation from insurance companies. Ram alleged that Chauhan had the support of judicial officers, attracted by financial incentives and the free use of Chauhan’s fleet of cars.

After getting a report from the Ambala district judge, the High Court on April 19, 2004, ordered a CBI investigation.

In August 2006, after two years, CBI inspectors Balbir Singh and IMS Negi filed the first chargesheet detailing the alleged scam. According to the CBI, Chauhan and his associates approached accident victims’ families, offering to handle their claim cases for free. They fabricated evidence by planting unrelated drivers, vehicles and witnesses, often with forged documents, to support the claims. Addresses in the claim files were often falsified to conceal the real identities of claimants, drivers, vehicle owners and witnesses. They allegedly pocketed 25%-50% of the settlement amounts.

A supplementary chargesheet followed in 2007.

The CBI ultimately investigated 25 claim cases filed from 1997 to 2001 and charged 30 people. However, no judicial officers were charged. Nine of the accused died during the trial. Among the cases investigated was that of Randhir Singh, an auto driver who died in 1999 in Thanesar, Kurukshetra. After initially declaring the accident untraceable, Head Constable Dharampal reopened the case a month later, implicating Hazura Singh, a Mahindra Jeep driver, with a witness named Didar Singh introduced to claim he had seen the incident. The New India Assurance Company denied the accident in its statement.

The MACT awarded Randhir’s widow Rs 4.05 lakh. During the CBI trial proceedings, Didar Singh testified that he had neither witnessed the accident nor testified before the MACT in Ambala. Another individual, Manjit Singh, admitted to impersonating Didar Singh in Ambala at the insistence of Chauhan.

In the case of Dyal Kaur vs Gurdev Mohan, compensation was sought for a 1998 accident involving Ram Kishan and his servant Chanda Singh, reportedly struck by an unidentified vehicle. A police head constable, Purshottam Dass, planted a Canter truck and its driver, Gurdev Mohan, based on false testimony. Compensation of Rs 9.96 lakh and Rs 2.57 lakh was awarded to the victims’ families. However, the CBI later discovered that Chanda Singh’s widow, Dyal Kaur, had died in 2001, and another woman had impersonated her in court and at the bank to withdraw the money.

These cases revealed a pattern of fraud involving staged accidents, forged documents, and falsified testimonies, with compensation awarded on bogus claims.

The CBI court pointed out that the offending vehicles were traced in all hit-and-run cases, which reportedly occurred at night, despite untraced police reports, and in all cases, claims were filed through Chauhan.

Rs 1.11-cr fraud, 17-year trial

A CBI court in Panchkula takes 17 years to convict an Ambala advocate and 14 others in 25 cases of bogus insurance claim involving Rs 1.11 crore. Nine of the accused died during the period of trial.