Mumbai: Two booked for selling fake insurance policies on bank premises

ICICI Bank has registered an FIR against two former employees of ICICI Lombard who would sit on the bank premises and are suspected of selling fake insurance policies to customers The accused created fake ID cards of ICICI Lombard and operated from within the ICICI Bank branch located on Mahakali Caves Road in Andheri EastThe two accused have been identified as Gaurav Shah a former employee of the ICICI Lombard who resigned in 2022 and his accomplice Komal Kadam The FIR was registered based on the complaint of the branch manager Mohammed Javed KhanThe police said the accused also appointed two individualsmdashMayank Barnwal and Sayali Jadhavmdashas employees on a salary of R18000 per month and trained them inside the ICICI Bank branchesBogus ID cards to gain accessAccording to the police Shah and Kadam visited the ICICI Bank branch at Mahakali Caves Road in April 2024 They posed as officials from ICICI Lombard They showed their fake identity cards of ICICI Lombard and claimed to be part of the ICICI Group Trusting their credentials the bank branch manager Khan allowed them access to the branch for customer services However due to space constraints they were later asked to shift to the MIDC or JB Nagar branches in July 2024 after which they stopped visiting the Andheri branchA police officer said ldquoOn December 18 Mayank Barnwal who was appointed by the accused approached Khan stating that he had resigned from the job eight days earlier due to irregular salary payments He also mentioned that Shah was demanding a refund of two monthsrsquo salary and asked if such a rule existed Suspicious Khan inquired about Shah and discovered that he had resigned from ICICI Lombard two years ago and no such employees existedrdquoTraining and perksThe accused conducted fake interviews for Barnwal and Jadhav on May 16 and May 29 respectively appointing them as sales executives by providing them with fake offer letters Training sessions were held at locations such as Growelrsquos 101 Mall in Kandivli East Nakshatra Green Complex in Naigaon East and Jadhavrsquos residence in Palghar They even created a WhatsApp group to share jobrelated information sales targets and banking product details and included a number falsely attributed to Sandeep Bakhshi managing director of ICICI Bank to give the scam legitimacyA police officer said ldquoIn November 2024 after Barnwal and Jadhav lsquocleared a final examinationrsquo the accused took them on a trip to Shimla and Manali claiming it was organised by ICICI Bank as a perkrdquoEvidence and paymentsCCTV footage from May 16 to May 29 confirmed the presence of Shah and Kadam at the Andheri branch interacting with Barnwal and Jadhav They also used a laptop displaying the bankrsquos logo The investigation revealed that Kadam had no connection with ICICI Bank or ICICI Lombard and Shah had resigned from ICICI Lombard in 2022 Payments of Rs 18000 per month were reportedly made to Barnwal through the PhonePe and Google Pay appsICICI saysSpeaking with midday branch manager Mohammed Javed Khan said ldquoWe verified the fraudulent activities and found the accused misused our trust and resources endangering the bankrsquos reputation We are fully cooperating with the police to take action against the impostors We handed over CCTV footage to the cops to take action against themrdquoCopSpeakSenior Police Inspector Rajiv Chavan of MIDC police station told midday ldquoWe have registered an FIR against two people who posed as employees of ICICI Lombard and used fake ID cards We are investigating why they used fraudulent ID cards and were working from the bank branches We are scanning CCTV camera footage of the bankrsquos branches to check their activities and are also verifying if they sold any insurance policies to unsuspecting customersrdquoRs 18KAmount paid to individuals who were fraudulently hired