The Supreme Court on April 2, 2026 directed the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe a ₹400 crore fake insurance policy racket at the National Insurance Company (NIC). The apex court also categorised NIC chairman and managing director S Ramaswamy as an accused in the case, citing prima facie evidence that surfaced during an earlier 2024 vigilance inquiry.
And the order came barely 72 hours after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) referred the case to the Supreme Court on March 28, 2026. The CBI had wound up its 14-month investigation into how counterfeit policies worth ₹400 crore were floated by compromised NIC officials between 2018 and 2023. During raids in Patna and Ranchi in November 2024, sleuths recovered forged policy documents, fake customer signatures, and printed stamps of the Income Tax department.
But the scale had alarmed India’s largest insurer: 9,847 fake health and life policies, sold through at least 26 brokerages spread across Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. The oldest fake policy dated January 2018, the newest September 2023, said the CBI first information report copy reviewed by this reporter.
Earlier on Thursday morning, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia met for 90 minutes in Court No. 3 via video-link. Senior advocate K Parameshwar — representing the CBI — told the bench that the agency had finished its technical verification using Aadhaar and PAN databases, confirming that 87 per cent of the policy holders had never received cover. Parameshwar added that NIC’s CMD Ramaswamy had overseen two of the three regional offices where the forgeries were detected.
The bench immediately passed the one-paragraph order: “(i) Issue direction for constitution of SIT; (ii) list the matter on April 3, 2026 for directions; (iii) make CMD an accused.” NIC shares listed on the NSE fell 2.1 per cent to ₹48.75 on the day. The stock had lost ₹5 on March 28 when the CBI first sought apex court cover via a written dossier.
During the Supreme Court hearing, the bench also called out NIC’s internal audit trail. Justice Kaul expressed surprise that the company’s then-chief internal auditor, Manoj Kedia — who served from 2020 to 2023 — had signed off on four quarterly reviews that never flagged the irregularities. The bench asked CBI to probe why no whistle-blower report was raised at NIC head office at 3, Middleton Street, Kolkata 700 071.
Meanwhile, the CBI made public three names of alleged mastermind brokers arrested from Patna’s Kankarbagh area on Wednesday. SP Ravi Kumar told reporters on Thursday that Ashok Mishra (37), Rajesh Prasad (42) and Vinod Singh (34) — all residents of Patna — were remanded to two-day CBI custody after seizures that included blank NIC policy papers, forged rubber stamps and Aadhaar card printing kits.
The arrests followed a tip-off from an anonymous whistle-blower received by the Economic Offences Wing of Bihar Police on March 10, 2026. The informant alleged that Mishra’s firm, “Ashok General Insurance Agency” based at Boring Road, had sold 1,104 fake policies, netting commissions of ₹2.44 crore.
Patna district court magistrate Neelam Kumari noted in the remand order that investigators had recovered a printed spreadsheet listing 45 other brokers whose commissions totalled ₹35 crore, but whose identities were still being decoded from encrypted pen drives.
Police also seized ledgers showing that the ring routed kickbacks to mid-level NIC officers in Ranchi and Lucknow regional offices. The CBI’s supplementary charge-sheet filed March 15, 2026 names NIC regional manager Ravi Shankar Dubey — a 2008 batch officer — as the key recipient of ₹89 lakh in cash kickbacks between 2020 and 2022.
The Supreme Court order said the SIT must file its first status report within six weeks. The bench also directed the Director General of Police, Bihar, to assist the SIT in executing non-bailable warrants against the three brokers currently on bail.
For policyholders who bought genuine policies from these compromised channels, NIC has opened a redressal cell at helpline 1800 20 13467. As of Thursday evening, 786 complainants have lodged online grievances citing non-payment of legitimate claims.
The CMD has not issued a public statement since Thursday morning. NIC’s website still shows Ramaswamy as CMD in the leadership section with a last-update timestamp of March 31, 2026.
