Lucknow, Dec 23 (IANS): Nearly 242 people submitted fake death certificates to claim life insurance policies of a private company.

The FIR in this connection has been lodged by an insurance company representative after an internal audit detected the fraud.

The FIR alleges that the company which issued insurance coverage to account holders of various banks had issued Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojna (PMJJBY) policies to several customers in Sambhal, Aligarh, Moradabad, Bareilly and other locations of Uttar Pradesh.

Recently, the company carried out internal/external verification/investigation to validate the genuineness of the death claims.

"It surfaced that in 242 cases there was fraud committed and fake death certificates were submitted," the FIR said.

It added that the death certificates were further scrutinized by scanning the QR Code, but it was redirected to the private link, which showed all such certificates as genuine.

However, it was found that the link was not of any government website but was a private link.

Company representative said that the fake link was created by unknown fraudsters with an intention to dupe the company and cause losses.

Superintendent of Police (SP), Cyber Cell, Triveni Singh, said that an FIR has been registered under the charges of punishment for cheating by personation, and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.