JOHOR BAHRU – Police busted an insurance syndicate whose bogus agents sign up unwary victims, then stage their murder as accidents before claiming compensation from the policy bought in the victim’s name.
Johor police chief M. Kumar said the syndicate was uncovered during an investigation into the murder of a 38-year-old man in Kulai who purportedly died in an accident on May 6.
He said the investigation revealed that the syndicate killed the victim so it could claim compensation from a life insurance policy of the deceased.
“The modus operandi of this syndicate is to buy a RM500,000 life insurance policy for an individual chosen randomly without the victim’s knowledge, usually a person without kin or family.
“After the documentation process and the victim’s insurance policy is approved by the (real) insurance company, the syndicate then schemes to kill the contributor with a plot in which the victim meets a fatal accident,” he said at the Johor police contingent headquarters here today.
Kumar said eight men aged 23 to 49 were arrested to assist in the investigation and that police were hunting for other syndicate members still at large.
Earlier, Kumar said the “accident-killing” occurred at 4.40am on May 6 when the victim riding a Honda EX5 motorcycle was crushed by two cars and a motorcycle on Jalan Senai-Seelong in Kulai.
He said four individuals then beat the victim before he was run over by an Isuzu lorry that happened to be passing through the road, killing the victim.
“After the victim died, a suspect applied for an insurance claim through an agent who is also a member of the syndicate. However, this insurance claim did not have time to be processed because the syndicate’s modus operandi was uncovered by the Johor police criminal investigation department,” he said.
The case is now being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, with the four individuals who were arrested charged in the Kulai magistrates’ court on June 19, while the other four were out on bail, he added. – June 24, 2024