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Vishal Singhal of Meerut killed family members to claim over Rs 100 crore from insurance, exposed after his fourth wife escaped and alerted police
Vishal confessed to murdering his wife, mother, and father, with his associate Satish Kumar also in custody. (News18 Hindi)
In a shocking case from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, police have uncovered one of the most gruesome and calculated financial frauds orchaestrated by a man who allegedly killed his own family members to defraud multiple insurance companies of over Rs 100 crore. The sinister plot, investigators said, was exposed only after his fourth wife narrowly escaped becoming his next victim.
The accused, identified as Vishal Singhal, a resident of Ganga Nagar in Meerut, had carefully constructed a web of deceit over several years, taking out dozens of insurance policies in the names of his family members, and later, allegedly planning their deaths to claim compensation.
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According to the police, Vishal’s father, Mukesh Singhal, once ran a modest photo studio, earning roughly Rs 25,000 a month. Yet within a few years, the family’s financial profile inexplicably transformed. Between 2018 and 2023, more than 64 insurance policies worth over Rs 50 crore were taken in Mukesh’s name. Luxury vehicles including a Toyota Legender, Nissan Magnite, Brezza, and a Royal Enfield motorcycle were purchased through loans. The rapid accumulation of wealth soon drew the attention, and suspicion, of insurance firms.
A Trail of Deaths
The first tragedy struck in 2017, when Vishal’s mother, Prabha Devi, died in what was believed to be a road accident while riding a two-wheeler with her son. Locals dismissed it as an unfortunate mishap. Five years later, in 2022, Vishal’s wife Ekta allegedly died of a heart attack. Then, in March 2024, Vishal’s father Mukesh also perished in another road accident.
Each of these deaths was initially treated as a coincidence. But alarm bells rang when Vishal filed a claim for Rs 39 crore from 60 different insurance policies following his father’s death. Insurance companies began to investigate, suspecting foul play.
The Fourth Wife Who Survived
The case cracked open when Vishal’s fourth wife, Shreya, whom he married in February 2024, noticed troubling similarities between her husband’s behaviour and reports of a multi-state insurance scam already under investigation in Sambhal, according to a TOI report. She told police that soon after their marriage, she learned that Vishal had been married multiple times before, and that she, too, was insured for Rs 3 crore.
“I noticed Vishal kept pushing me to sign policies, and there were so many past deaths in his family,” Shreya reportedly said, adding, “His father had even asked me for help, saying he feared for his life. After he died, I fled to my parents’ home.”
She further revealed that Vishal had told her his father was suffering from cancer and would die soon. When she refused to cooperate in his schemes, Vishal allegedly assaulted her and even attempted to injure her spine. She managed to escape and sought help from her parents, later submitting a complaint to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Meerut SSP.
When her concerns were initially brushed aside by the local police in Meerut, Shreya reached out to the Sambhal police, who were investigating staged-death frauds across 11 states. Her alert prompted authorities to reopen the case, connecting it to a broader pattern of insurance-related homicides.
It was on December 18, 2024, when multiple insurance firms jointly alerted the police that the case gained momentum. The companies reported that policies worth over Rs 70 crore had been taken in Mukesh’s name under suspicious circumstances.
A Methodical Murder for Money
Acting on the insurance firms’ complaint, ASP Anukriti Sharma of Sambhal district led a detailed probe. Investigators examined medical records, policy documents, and previous police files from Meerut and Hapur. Their findings pointed unmistakably toward deliberate homicide disguised as accident and illness.
The police said that Vishal meticulously planned each killing. He would take out dozens of life insurance policies on his targets, stage a road accident, have the victim admitted to a specific private hospital in Meerut, and then claim the payout. Both his wife and father were treated at the same hospital, raising questions of possible medical collusion.
“He has already claimed Rs 1.5 crore. The pattern was consistent,” Sambhal SP Krishna Kant Bishnoi told TOI. Police surveillance, bank records, and circumstantial evidence all pointed to deliberate staging of accidents.
In one instance, records showed that Mukesh was supposedly injured in a road accident around 3 pm on March 27, 2023, while returning from Garhmukteshwar. However, hospital records from Navjeevan Hospital revealed he was admitted only at 8 pm, a five-hour gap that raised suspicions.
“The description of injuries given by the son and the hospital did not match the post-mortem findings,” said Sanjay Kumar, a representative of one of the insurance companies, in his complaint. “The documents submitted by Vishal contained discrepancies in age and ID details. He also failed to present the vehicle involved or its registration papers,” he said.
An FIR was eventually filed on September 24, initially under cheating and forgery charges. “In the accused’s father’s case, a final report had already been filed and the case was closed,” said Hapur SP Kunwar Gyananjay Singh, as quoted by TOI, adding, “Now we have received the court’s permission to reopen the case. After a thorough investigation, BNS sections pertaining to murder and attempt to murder will be added.”
Confession and Arrest
Following sustained interrogation, Vishal Singhal confessed to murdering his wife, mother, and father. Police said he strangled his wife and father, while his mother was killed by being struck on the head with a heavy object. His associate, Satish Kumar, a ladies’ tailor from Meerut, was found to be complicit in the crimes. Both have since been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
Authorities continue to scrutinise the financial trail and insurance paperwork connected to Vishal’s elaborate scam, which has left the community in shock over how far greed could drive a man to destroy his own family.
Meerut, India, India
October 06, 2025, 13:57 IST
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