Chennai, Jul 3 (IANS): Private life insurer HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd.'s executive director and chief operating officer Paresh Parasnis has put down his papers, said company and industry sources Tuesday.

Speaking to IANS, an HDFC Standard Life official said Parasnis has resigned to pursue his long time interests.

"He is not joining any competing life insurer," the official added.

Queried about his resignation, Parasnis without confirming or denying the news told IANS: "I do not want to comment now on that."

However, company officials told IANS that Parasnis's resignation has nothing to do with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's (IRDA) Thursday order penalising the life insurer a whopping sum of Rs.1.47 crore.

The penalty is for rejecting 21 death claims in violation of the directions of the insurance regulator and also for excess payments made to distributors, including four group companies HDFC, HDFC Bank, HDFC Securities and HDB Financial Service, for services like selling policies, marketing expenses and others.

Though the IRDA has been penalising insurers in the recent times for various violations, one official has put it as "IRDA's penalty mela", saying the order on HDFC is unique.

For the first time, IRDA has explicitly ordered a company to debit the shareholders' account and not the policy holders' account so that the cost of regulatory non-compliance is not loaded on the policy holders.

The IRDA has also reprimanded HDFC Standard Life for various other violations in its order issued last week.

HDFC Standard Life is a joint venture between India's HDFC Ltd and the UK's Standard Life.