The government order directed the SIT to conduct a comprehensive investigation into all fraud complaints received from insurance companies and submit investigation reports to the government without delay through the Director General and Inspector General of Police.
Bengaluru: After a directive from the Supreme Court, the Karnataka government has constituted a SIT at the state-level to register and conduct a speedy probe into fraudulent claims received by insurance companies,the Home Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
The development comes following the directive issued by the Supreme Court in August asking all states to constitute dedicated Special Investigation Teams to probe suspected fraudulent insurance claims.
According to a government order issued by the Home Department dated September 22, the SIT will be headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, CTRS (Crime and Technical Research Services wing), Bengaluru, as its Chairperson.
According to the government order issued by the Home Department on September 22, 2026, an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police (IGP) will head the SIT as its chairperson. A Superintendent of Police (SP) nominated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will serve as a member.
In addition, one Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) and three Police Inspectors nominated by the Director General and Inspector General of Police will be part of the team.
The SIT will have jurisdiction across Karnataka and has been declared a police station under Section 2(1)(u) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Its officers have also been authorised under Section 193 of the law to submit final reports to the concerned courts.
All complaints relating to fraudulent claims received from insurance companies will be transferred to the SIT by the Director General and Inspector General of Police. The government will also provide the required officers and staff to enable the team to conduct investigations.
The government order directed the SIT to conduct a comprehensive investigation into all fraud complaints received from insurance companies and submit investigation reports to the government without delay through the Director General and Inspector General of Police.
The SIT has also been instructed to report investigation progress to the concerned authorities regularly.
The move aims to ensure that complaints about fraudulent insurance claims are investigated promptly through a dedicated state-level mechanism.
Earlier, Supreme Court has ordered a nationwide crackdown on fraudulent motor accident compensation claims, warning insurers that senior management could be held accountable for selectively referring suspicious cases to investigators.
The case arose from an appeal by Oriental Insurance Company against a compensation award in Odisha. The insurer alleged that a vehicle had been falsely shown as the offending vehicle because it carried valid insurance, despite allegedly being linked to multiple accidents.
The Court’s intervention follows its discovery of what it described as a fraud of “enormous proportion”, involving an alleged pattern in which the same vehicle was repeatedly shown as being involved in different accidents to obtain compensation from insurers.
A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Prasanna B Varale has directed every State and Union Territory to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe suspected fraudulent motor accident claims.
The bench has expanded the investigation beyond cases originating in Odisha and Tamil Nadu into a nationwide exercise, bringing the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the Union finance ministry, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the General Insurance Council within the scope of the proceedings.
The Court has also directed States and Union Territories to disclose the procedures they follow for investigating fraudulent claims.
In a strong warning to insurers, the bench said companies could not adopt a “pick and choose” approach when deciding which suspicious claims should be referred to the SIT.
“If there has been selective forwarding”, the topmost management of the concerned insurer would be held accountable, the Court said.
The directions place additional responsibility on insurers to scrutinise potential fraud within their own organisations. Insurers have been ordered to take departmental action against officials where an SIT recommendation or FIR indicates that they facilitated a fraudulent claim.
The Court has further directed insurers to conduct an in-house investigation whenever a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) rejects a claim on grounds of fraud or collusion. Details of such cases must then be immediately forwarded to the SIT in the State where the claim was made.
The proceedings began with a dispute over whether a vehicle dispute over whether a vehicle cited in a compensation claim was actually involved in the accident.