Noida: A consumer court has ordered Bajaj Allianz to pay Rs 1.05lakh, besides litigation costs, to an e-rickshaw driver whose vehicle was stolen after he was allegedly drugged. The insurer had rejected his claim on the grounds that the complaint was filed late. The delay had occurred as the driver struggled to get an FIR registered.The complainant, Mohammad Israr, had purchased the e-rickshaw for Rs 1.05 lakh on Feb 10, 2020. He got it insured for a year with Bajaj Allianz for an amount of Rs 7,000.Israr was ferrying some passengers between Sector 18 metro station and Baraula on July 6, 2020, when they allegedly made him sniff a handkerchief laced with chloroform. He said the passengers left him by the side of the road and fled with the vehicle. A police officer noticed him and informed his brother, who took Israr home. When he woke up the next day, nearly 36 hours later, he rushed to the Sector 49 police station to file a complaint. However, the officers there refused to register a case, saying that since the incident occurred near Sector 20, the complaint would be lodged there. Officers at Sector 20 and Sector 39 police stations also turned him away, citing jurisdiction issues. It was after the intervention of an ACP that a case was registered at Sector 49 police station on July 16, 2020.Three days after the FIR was filed, Israr informed Bajaj Allianz about the theft. The insurer sent an inspector to meet Israr and collect a few documents. The final reports of the police investigation were filed on Feb 17, 2022; the court accepted it on March 16 and Israr was given a copy of the closure report on March 30. When Israr approached the insurer on April 4, he was informed that his file had been closed due to non-submission of documents. Israr then filed a complaint at the consumer forum on April 21, 2022, seeking a direction to the insurance company to accept his claim. Bajaj Allianz denied Israr’s claims, saying, “The FIR was filed after a 10-day gap. Delay in lodging of the FIR is a violation of clause 1 of the terms and conditions of the policy.”After hearing both sides, a bench of commission president Anil Kumar Pundir and member Anju Sharma said, “The complainant provided a sufficient explanation for the delay in filing the First Information Report and provided the necessary documents as requested. However, the denial of the claim constitutes a deficiency in service.”The commission found Bajaj Allianz guilty of deficiency in service and ordered it to settle the insured sum of Rs 1.05 lakh, with interest calculated at 6% PA from the date of filing the complaint in April 2022, within 30 days. It also directed the insurance company to pay Rs 5,000 to the applicant as litigation costs.
