It sounds like a bizarre plot for a Hollywood film: to stage one's own death with a cobra as a "murder weapon".
New Dehli - A man (54) in India faked his own death.
The reason: He wanted to cash in five million US dollars (4.3 million euros) from his American life insurance.
However, his perfidious plan did not work out.
Police in Rajur (Maharashtra state) in southern India uncovered an incredible case of insurance fraud.
The 54-year-old had lived in the United States for over 20 years and had recently returned to India to his village of Rajur in Ahmednagar district.
The insurance company had grown suspicious and dispatched an investigator.
Then the conspiracy was exposed.
Man kills Indians with cobra - to collect $ 5 million in life insurance
According to the authorities, the 54-year-old had a poor man who looked like him killed with the bite of a purchased cobra, as the police announced on Twitter.
The
Indian Express
first reported it on Tuesday, citing the police.
The officials became skeptical when people around the dead gave contradicting information.
Since the police could not find any relatives of the deceased, they began to follow up the calls from the alleged dead person.
According to the call logs, it quickly emerged that the 54-year-old was still alive and pretending to be a nephew in the hospital to identify his alleged body.
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 murder weapon Kobra - the insidious plan of the insurance fraudster
According to the police, in order to fake his death, the 54-year-old had a penniless man who looked like him killed with the bite of a cobra he had bought.
The victim is said to be a mentally ill 50-year-old.
The man and four accomplices were arrested.
Life insurance had originally become skeptical because four years earlier he had already faked his wife's death.
(dpa / ml)
The use of two dogs who saved a sleeping baby from a cobra attack was extremely brave.
A surveillance camera filmed the four-legged heroes.
