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Delhi traders try to cremate mannequin to claim insurance money, arrested in UP

HAPUR: Two Delhi-based traders were arrested here after they allegedly tried to cremate a mannequin instead of a human body as part of an elaborate plot to fraudulently claim insurance money worth Rs 50 lakh to pay a debt, police said on Friday. The bizarre sequence unfolded when four men arrived in a Haryana-registered car with what they claimed was a corpse. They bought ghee and other items required for the last rites and quietly placed the ody on a pyre. However, their nervous behaviour caught the attention of Nitin, a municipal employee present at the cremation ghat. When he pulled the sheet covering the ody, he found that it was actually a mannequin on the pyre. He immediately alerted the municipal authorities, police said. After receiving information about the incident, a police team rushed to the spot and recovered the car of the accused along with three mannequins. Two of the accused -- Kamal Somani and his associate Ashish Khurana, both residents of Jain Colony in Delhi's Uttam Nagar -- were arrested. Two of their associates managed to escape, police said. During interrogation, Somani, a textile trader, confessed that he had a debt of Rs 50 lakh and had been depressed for months. To repay the amount, he devised an elaborate scheme. He obtained the Aadhaar and PAN cards of Anshul, the brother of his employee Neeraj, on the pretext of some paperwork, took out a Rs 50 lakh Tata AIA insurance policy in Anshul's name nearly a year ago, and had been paying the premiums regularly, said Circle Officer Stuti Singh. The plan was to send Anshul out of town, pass the mannequin off as his body, cremate it to obtain an official receipt from the cremation ground, secure a death certificate, and then claim the insurance payout, police said. Police used Somani's phone to video call Anshul, who was in Prayagraj. He told police he had no idea his death was being staged at Brijghat, they said. Circle Officer Singh said it was a case of insurance fraud. An investigation is underway and efforts are on to trace the absconding suspects, she said.

28 Nov 2025 12:50 pm