Why wives of MP babus make good insurance agents

Wives of govt officials make very good insurance agents as long as their husbands are attached to cash-rich departments.

The recent Income-Tax raids that led to the suspension of an IAS couple and a few officials have brought to the fore a fact that wives of government officials make very good insurance agents as long as their husbands are attached to cash-rich departments. Besides investing the surplus from their husbands and their seniors,including IAS officers,these agents swell their business by selling policies to contractors and sub-contractors. Raids at the premises of one of these agents brought about the downfall of IAS couple Arvind Joshi and his wife Tinoo Joshi. Both principal secretaries,they were suspended after Rs 3 crore cash was recovered from their official residence.

I-T sources said details of premiums worth crores in the names of the Joshis and their family members were recovered from the house of Bharati Bhasne,the wife of PWD executive engineer Jitendra Kumar Bhasne. Bharati was engaged as an agent with a private insurance firm. The premiums were unusually high, a top I-T officer told The Indian Express. The department served a notice to Arvind Joshi,a 1979 batch officer,following which he immediately paid tax of Rs 2.30 crore in the name of his mother. His mother had not filed her I-T returns. Undeterred by the notice and the tax he paid,the Principal Secretary,who was attached to the water resources department for six years,did not mend his ways.

Jyoti Asai,wife of another PWD executive engineer Deepak Asai,who worked as an insurance agent for the same firm that engaged Bharati,was also raided. Her husband was earlier attached to the road development corporation. I-T sources said three such agents were covered under the raids.

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The alleged mastermind behind engaging the wives as agents was Seema Jaiswal,an agent herself till a few years ago. Given her proximity to officials in departments like the Water Resources,PWD and MP Road Development Corporation,Jaiswal managed such huge volumes in the last three to four years that she became the branch manager (sales) of the insurance firm in no time. Policies worth crores were found from Jaiswals place whose premises were raided along with the Joshis and other officers,including retired IAS officer M A Khan.

By engaging the wives of government officials,Jaiswal ensured that her flow of income did not stop after her absorption as a regular employee. The branch also did well and so did she by parking bad money though the agent-wives. The agent-wives,when contacted,refused to comment.

Its surprising that the bank did not take notice of suspicious transactions even though on days there were several transactions of a shade less than Rs 50,000 to escape giving the mandatory PAN. Director General of I-T(Investigations) Brijesh Gupta said addresses given in some of the policies were fake. The I-T sources said the department would write to the RBI to inform such suspicious transactions.

The MP I-T officials were helped by information shared by their head office from annual financial returns filed by institutions like banks and insurance companies. The I-T department shares with its regional offices details of individual investments like sale of property worth more than Rs 30 lakh or deposits of Rs 10 lakh or more in the savings accounts.

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The I-T department will prosecute the IAS couple for concealing details because the raids had been preceded by a notice served last year. The government can act only against its employees not the wives.