Man faking own death for insurance claim detained, he used cobra

A Maharashtra man faked his own death using a cobra to get a life insurance claim worth US$5 million, which amounts to about Rs875 million. But his attempt ended up in him being jailed.

The insurance company suspected the death and sent an investigator to report on the facts around the death. The investigator unraveled the drop scene according to the local media.

According to the police, Prabhakar Bhimaji Waghchaure had been living in the US for 20 years and has moved back to India in January this year and lived in the Rajur village of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra since then.

The local police received the reports of his death on April 22 from a local public hospital and the body was identified by a man who claimed to be his nephew and another man who claimed to be a resident of the Rajur village.

Another local, Harshad Lahamge identified the body as that of Waghchaure, as well.

After the preliminary medical report citing the cause of death to be a snakebite, the body was handed over to the nephew for last the final rites.

But things took a dramatic turn when officials from the insurance firm began probing Waghchaure’s life insurance claim and contacted Ahmednagar authorities seeking more information on his death.

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As part of the probe, the police initially visited Waghchaure’s house in Rajur where a neighbor said she is unaware of any snakebite incident. However, she had seen an ambulance arrived at the house during the scene of the alleged incident.

पॉलीसीचा क्लेम मिळवण्याकरिता सर्पदंश करुन मनोरुग्न व्यक्तीचा
खुन करणाऱ्या पाच #आरोपींना #राजुर #पोलीसांकडुन आटक pic.twitter.com/GBvhR1kzSB

— Ahmednagar Police (@NagarPolice) October 26, 2021

The report said that when police contacted Lahamge, the resident who had identified the body, he said Praveen had died of COVID.

As police were unable to trace any relative of the deceased, they looked at Waghchaure’s call records and found him alive, he was detained shortly.