Staff Reporter :
Padma Islamic Life Insurance Company started its insurance business across the country with the catchy slogan ‘Promise of a worry-free safe life’. However, millions of insurance customers who buy insurance with this company are now worried about the security of their insurance money. The insurance company is looting the hard-earned money of the common people in the name of a kind of fraud. In a word, Padma Islamic Life is now a thorn in the side of the customers of the life insurance company. On the one hand, the insurance claims of the customers are not being paid, on the other hand, it is stealing money from the pockets of the people by selling insurance policies. The company’s owners and officials are living a luxurious life with this money from the customers. And the customers have to roam the streets to get their money back at the end of the insurance period. Due to the lack of proper supervision and care, this company has now turned into a speculative insurance company. Numerous customer complaints are being received against the private life insurance company Padma Islamic Life Insurance for not paying insurance claims. To bring the attention of the readers and the regulatory agencies to the newspaper, this report describes the pain and anger of just two insurance customers. The current Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company is Nur Mohammad Bhuiyan. Everyone in the life insurance sector knows about his past scandal. He has ruined the company he became the MD of. By appointing such an unworthy and incompetent person as the MD of the insurance company and approving that appointment, both the board of directors of the company and the regulatory agency are questionable. The current chairman of the board of directors of the company is Shariat Ullah. He has also completely failed to perform his duties properly. The issue of paying the insurance claims of the customers is not that important to him. The company received a license for business on April 30, 2000. The company has been in a weak state for a long time due to various irregularities and corruption. The company has a total of 2 lakh 48 thousand 176 customers with outstanding death claims and post-term insurance claims. According to the latest information, the company raised insurance claims worth 231 crore 8 lakh 9 thousand taka in the 9 months from January to September 2024. Out of this, only 1 crore 87 lakh 39 thousand taka was paid. At this time, there are outstanding claims of 229 crore 20 lakh 69 thousand taka. However, it is known that this amount will be more by the end of the year. Currently, the company does not have a life fund. The owners and officials of the company have looted it and destroyed it. The company’s millions of insurance customers are not getting their post-term insurance claims and death claims back. The existing insurance law has a legal obligation to pay the customer’s insurance claim money within 90 days from the date of maturity. However, the company has been harassing the customers for months and years without refunding their claim money. Numerous aggrieved insurance customers are staging a sit-in at the company’s head office and not getting their money. Even the affected insurance customers have complained to the insurance regulatory body Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) that they are not getting any remedy. Even after the final approval of the customer’s insurance claim payment file at the end of the term, the file is being held for a long time without payment. The concerned branch is saying that no check can be given to anyone without the order of the MD sir. The check will be given only when the MD sir says so. In this way, the money for the insurance customer’s post-term insurance claim is being held back year after year on the pretext of the MD’s order. Several affected insurance customers have come to the Orthabij newspaper office and made such complaints against the company. Bellal Hossain, son of Abul Hossain Mandal of Kamarkhand area of ​​Sirajganj district, is one of the affected insurance customers. Md. Bellal Hossain took out an insurance policy of 60 thousand taka for a ten-year term in December 2008 with monthly installments of 5 hundred taka (policy number- 05129062229). He has not been able to deposit any more installment money financially after making 45 installments. His insurance contract expired in December 2018. He only had an insurance claim of Tk 25,000. When he contacted the company after the expiry date, he was asked to wait for a long time and finally open a bank account and submit the name, address and account number of the bank. Even after completing all the work, he has not received his insurance claim money back even after 6 long years. The accounts department told him that the MD sir will give him a check if he says so. The MD sir did not say so, so he is no longer receiving the insurance money. How is it possible for an ordinary insurance customer to meet the MD of an insurance company? Why do you have to talk to the MD sir to get an insurance check? The company has been cheating insurance customers like this for a long time. Another extremely poor insurance customer of the company is Ayesha Khatun. She has been visiting this company for 6 years for a post-term insurance claim of only Tk 47,792. She complains that we are daily wage workers. Hardworking people. We earn our living day by day. We took out insurance after many requests and temptations from the company people. I have been depositing Tk 500 every month with great difficulty. At the end of the term, I was tempted to pay a lot of profit. But now, let alone profit, I have been wandering for 6 years for my real money. No one can say anything about when the money will be available. It is not possible for him to come to Dhaka from Sirajganj every month to search for this money.
On December 25, 2008, a very poor insurance recipient, Aisha Khatun, took out an insurance of 60 thousand taka in monthly installments of 5 hundred taka. Her insurance policy number is 05148007171. Her insurance term expired on December 25, 2018. Aisha Khatun applied for a refund of her insurance money on time. On behalf of the company He was asked to open a bank account by writing the name, address and account number of the bank in the prescribed form of the company and deposit it in the company. Even after filling all these, the company is not giving him his money. He said that he has contacted many people living in Dhaka in his area, some of whom have tried to hand over the money, but have failed. He asked, who can I go to now to get my money. When I called the company’s Chief Executive Officer Noor Mohammad Bhuiyan’s mobile number to talk about why the insurance customer’s money is not being paid, he did not pick up the mobile himself but gave me his PS. The PS introduced himself and said, “Sir, you are out, if you have anything to know, you can tell me.” He was told, “No, you have to talk to the MD.” Your MD sir will actually tell him that he wants to know the reason for the insurance customer’s non-payment of the post-term money. If he does not call, I will call him again. Since he did not call for a long time, he was called again, but neither he nor his PS answered the phone. Later, when the company’s chairman Shariat Ullah was called, he did not answer the phone either. Finally, the MD was informed of the complaints made by the insurance customers of his company through a short message on his WhatsApp number and asked why their insurance claims were not being paid even after 6 years. But the company’s MD did not give any statement on this matter. As a result, it is not possible for Padma Islami Life to give any statement on this matter. It is known that the development workers of weak life insurance companies sell insurance policies in the field and ensure their salary and commission before depositing the premium money into the company’s account. They deposit the money after receiving the check for their commission and salary. The MD and his colleagues pay their own salary and office rent with this money. The life fund and investment accounts remain empty. So how will the customers of this company get their insurance claim money back in the future? It is the responsibility of the regulatory body to investigate all these issues. The regulatory body has been given the power in the Insurance Act, but they do not use that power properly. There is a provision in the law to suspend or cancel the business license of the concerned insurance company if it does insurance business without following the law. But despite many allegations of irregularities, there is no example of the regulatory body taking such strict action. Even though a class of insurance executives take the money of the insurance policy as salary allowance, the poor insurance customer does not get his insurance claim money back at the end of the term. The salary allowance of all levels of officials starting from the MD of the company is being paid regularly with the money of the insurance customer. Even the directors who attend the company’s board meetings and various committee meetings are being given honorarium and a lavish banquet is being organized. Some weak companies have been seen celebrating the English New Year by cutting cakes. Although the customer’s money is being spent unnecessarily in this way, various excuses are being made to pay an insurance claim of 25 thousand taka from a helpless insurance customer like Bellal.
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