New Delhi: Police arrested a government official in Talangana for murdering a man to fake own death to misappropriate insurance claim to his name.
Four others including his wife and two relatives were arrested in Medak district alongside the 44-year-old official.
The prime accused, according to India Today, was an Assistant Section Officer (ASO) in Telangana State Secretariat.
The official and others hatched the plan to overcome losses of Rs 85 lakh he had made in stock market, police said.
The group planned how to get the officer's lookalike and do away with him, confusing the police.
The officer first purchased 25 insurance policies worth Rs 7.4 crore in his name over the past one year.
Shortly later a man was found charred to death in a wholly burnt car in a gorge on the outskirts of Venkatapur village of the district.
The ID card recovered from the site of the incident led the police to believe the officer was dead.
However, police discovered that the employee "faked" his death to claim insurance money.
When he was taken into custody along with four others, the gruesome murder came to the light.
It is now revealed that the group picked a man near Nizamabad railway station on January 8.
They had his head shaved and got him put on the officer’s dress before taking him to Venkatapur village, police said.
The officer poured petrol both inside and outside the car and tried to force the man sit in the car.
When he resisted, they allegedly killed him attacking him with an axe and stick, before setting the car on fire with the body inside, police reportedly said.