SerpApi.Org
A fraud ring that allegedly passed off suicides as snakebite deaths to claim compensation has been exposed in India.
A doctor, two members of the home guard and a lawyer were among 19 people arrested in the central state of Chhattisgarh for allegedly forging postmortem reports and concealing genuine causes of death.
The network is accused of fabricating reports, recycling official inquest numbers and forging government records to claim the £3,500 that the district government pays out to a snakebite victim’s next of kin.
The suspects used previous inquest cases of people who died from natural illness, cancer, suicide or other causes to prepare the forged documents, Chhattisgarh police said.
Officers believe the criminal network operated between 2018 and 2024 and warned further arrests were likely after dozens more suspicious claims came to light.
In India, snakebites kill an estimated 58,000 people annually, making up nearly half of all global snakebite deaths.
Syndicate included taxman and bankers
The alleged fraud surfaced after Sushant Shukla, a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, questioned a number of unusually high compensation payments made to people in Bilaspur district.
Official figures shared by Mr Shukla with the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly revealed that Bilaspur recorded 431 snakebite deaths over three years, triggering compensation payments worth 17.24 crore Indian rupees (£1.5m).
“It is a syndicate of lawyers, doctors, revenue and bank officials,” said Rajnesh Singh, senior superintendent of police in the Bilaspur district in Chhattisgarh.
“Scientific inspection and forensic laboratory testing should be carried out in every reported snakebite death.”
Mr Singh said he suspected a significant number of snakebite claims to be fraudulent.
One case exposed by investigators was of a man who died by suicide at Sarkanda, a sub-district in Chhattisgarh. After his death, his inquest was registered and a postmortem conducted.
The same inquest number was used later to create a fabricated postmortem report to pass off his death as a snakebite fatality, Mr Singh said.
False postmortem reports
In the nearby locality of Torwa, Dr Priyanka Soni, 37, was arrested for allegedly preparing false postmortem reports in multiple cases and passing them off as snakebite deaths.
Dr Soni was also charged with passing off the death of a relative who was poisoned as a snakebite fatality.
Police are investigating 15 suspected cases, and scrutinising postmortem reports issued by five other doctors.
According to police, lawyers persuaded families to support false snakebite claims, while doctors produced forged medical certificates.
Revenue officials then processed compensation paperwork and bank employees helped move payments through beneficiary accounts before the money was allegedly shared among members of the group.
A municipal driver attached to the local administration is also suspected of acting as a key intermediary between officials and middlemen.
A lawyer identified by investigators as a principal suspect remains at large.
