Noida ESIC clerk held for manipulation of beneficiary records Rs 40 lakh fraud surfaces

Noida, Jul 15 (PTI) The Noida police on Monday arrested a clerk of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation for allegedly embezzling around Rs 40 lakh by replacing the names of legitimate beneficiaries on the ESIC portal with fake identities, officials said.
     The arrest of Rajat Bharti was made by the Crime Branch along with the Sector 58 police station officials following a detailed investigation, they said.
     "The accused removed the names of legitimate insured individuals from the portal and replaced them with fake identities to fraudulently claim Super Special Treatment (SST) benefits," a police spokesperson said.
     Bharti, a resident of Dayalpur in Delhi, worked as a lower division clerk at the ESIC sub-regional office in Noida, the official said.
     "Using his user ID and password, Bharti would delete the names of genuine insured persons and substitute them with bogus entries. He then facilitated expensive medical treatments under SST, receiving payments from the ESIC to hospitals on the panel," the spokesperson said.
     The fraudulent scheme involved Bharti personally collecting money from patients while ensuring that the ESIC disbursed payments to the hospitals, according to police.
     "Bharti exploited his position for personal gain, manipulating the system to divert funds meant for genuine claimants," the official said.
     An FIR has been lodged in the case on charges of criminal breach of trust, forgery of documents, cheating and under provisions of the Information Technology Act, police said.
     Further legal proceedings in the case are underway, they added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)