Ref: IRDA/SURV/ORD/LC/045/03/2019 18/03/2019

ORDER of Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority of India under Section 42D(6) of the Insurance Act, 1938and Regulation 24(1) & (2) of the IRDAI (InsuranceSurveyors and Loss Assessors) Regulations, 2015 read with 42D(5)(g) of theInsurance Act, 1938 and Regulation 16(1) of IRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and LossAssessors) Regulations, 2015

Based on the Show Cause Notice issued toShri.Geddam Uma Maheshwara Rao (SLA No-13954) vide Ref .IRDA/SURV/SCN/2018/OTW/1443dated 20/09/2018 and submissions made by the surveyor during the personalhearing held on 23/10/2018.

1.     It has come to the notice of InsuranceRegulatory and Development Authority of India (hereinafter referred as “TheAuthority”) that Shri.Geddam Uma Maheshwara Rao (SLA No-13954)(hereinafter referred as “the Surveyor”)has sought unlawful monetary favours from the insured/claimant to discharge hisduty, while conducting the loss assessment during the Kerala Floods in themonth of August, 2018. In this regard, the Authority was in receipt of a letterdated 05/09/2018 from M/s.Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd (hereinafterwill be referred as “The Insurer) and newspaper reports dated 29/08/2018. Itwas mentioned therein that the surveyor had been arrested by the Policedepartment of Kerala, pursuant the aforementioned incident. The Code of Conductprescribed under Regulation 16(1) of IRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and LossAssessors) Regulations, 2015 (hereinafter referred as “Surveyor Regulations”)requires all surveyors and loss assessors to behaveethically and with integrity in their professional pursuits. Based on theinformation furnished, the Authority has observed violation of Code of Conductspecified under Regulation 16(1) of the Surveyor Regulations.

2.      Pursuantto the above, vide Ref.IRDA/SURV/SCN/2018/OTW/1443 dated 20/09/2018 theAuthority has issued a Show Cause Notice to the surveyor in light of the observedviolation of Code of Conduct specified under Regulation 16(1) of SurveyorRegulations. Further, the surveyor was informed that, if required, under theprovisions of the Surveyor Regulations, an opportunity for personal hearingshall be granted to him to make submissions/ clarification, if any, in thisregard.

3.      Thesurveyor has made his submissions vide letter dated 05/10/2018 and requestedfor an opportunity for personal hearing. Thereafter, an opportunity forpersonal hearing has been granted to the surveyor vide letter Ref:IRDA/SURV/PH/2018/OTW/1460 dated 10/10/2018. The personal hearing was held on23/10/2018 at IRDAI, Sy No.115/1, Financial District, Hyderabad-500032.

4.     The personal hearing was attended by Mr..GeddamUma Maheshwara Rao (SLA No-13954) and heard by Mr. Sujay Banarji, Member(Distribution). Mr. Suresh Mathur, ED (Surveyors), Mr. P. Marimuthu, AM and Mr.V.Pranav, Assistant were present on behalf of the Authority.

5.      Thefindings based on the submissions made by the surveyor against the charge ofviolation raised and evidence received in support of the misconduct and thedecision of the Authority, thereon, are detailed below.

6.Charge:

6.1.Violation of Regulation 16(1) of the IRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and LossAssessors) Regulations, 2015 read with Section 42(D) of the Insurance Act,1938.

Ithas come to the notice of the Authority that the surveyor has sought unlawfulmonetary favours from the insured/claimant to discharge his duty, whileconducting the loss assessment during the recent Kerala Floods. In this regard,the Authority was in receipt of letter dated 05/09/2018 from M/s.Universal SompoGeneral Insurance Co. Ltd and newspaper reports dated 29/08/2018. Further,it is mentioned that the surveyor has been arrested by the Police department ofKerala, pursuant the aforementioned incident. The Regulation 16(1) of Surveyorregulations specified the Code of Conduct of the Surveyor which mandates thatevery surveyor and loss assessor shall behave ethically and with integrity inthe professional pursuits. Integrity implies not merely honesty but fairdealings and truthfulness. In the instant case, it has been alleged that thesurveyor has sought unlawful monetary favours from the insured/claimant todischarge duty, while conducting the loss assessment during the recent KeralaFloods, for which, the surveyor has been arrested by the Police department ofKerala. This is in violation of the aforesaid Regulation 16(1) of IRDAI(Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors) Regulations, 2015. Further, it hasbeen informed by M/s.Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd that they haveblacklisted the surveyor in light of the aforesaid incident.

6.2.Submissions from the Surveyor:

The surveyor has submitted that it is true that hewas arrested. But, the charges against him such as unlawful monetary favoursare wrong and baseless and contrary to facts. Further, he has submitted that hewas appointed by M/s. Universal Sompo General Insurance Co.Ltd to survey a lossrelated to Kerala Floods at Thrissur and the property to be surveyed was anautomobile wheel alignment shop. The sum assured pertaining to the machinerykept in the basement was Rs. 20 lakhs and the tyres kept on the upper floor wasRs. 40 lakhs bringing the total sum assured to 60 lakhs. Further, he hassubmitted that during the floods, the machinery had gotten submerged as thewater level had risen up to 5 feet. However, the tyres kept on the upper floorwere not affected and he had informed the claimant that the loss is confined tothe machinery and not the tyres. Further, the surveyor submitted that theclaimant had demanded the loss to be valued at Rs. 50 lakhs for which thesurveyor had refused and subsequently, the claimant and a few other people cameto his hotel room when he was alone and took him forcibly to the Police Stationwhere he was threatened to write the report as per the wishes of the claimantfor which he has refused to oblige. Further, he has submitted that the audio/videoclips circulated in the media are not genuine and that they are forged. Withregard to the blacklisting of the surveyor by M/s.UniversalSompo General Insurance Co. Ltd, he has submitted that there is nocommunication from the insurer vis-à-vis the said blacklisting.

7. Inview of the above submissions by the surveyor, vide letter Ref:IRDAI/SURV/18-19/OTW/1464 dated 13/11/2018, the Authority has sought proof ofevidence from the insurer in order to proceed further in this regard. Pursuantto that, vide letter dated 27/11/2018 the insurer has submitted the videorecording comprising of the conversation between the surveyor and the insured,establishing the professional misconduct of surveyor which has led to violationof Code of Conduct specified under Regulation 16(1) of the SurveyorRegulations.

8.In light of the aforesaid video recording, vide letter Ref:IRDAI/SURV/18-19/OTW/1495 dt 03/01/2019, the Authority has provided a furtheropportunity for the surveyor to make his submissions against the evidencereceived and advised him to present himself before the Authority on 16/01/2019to make his submissions.

9. However, vide E-Mail dt 14/01/2019, the surveyor has responded against theaforesaid letter stating that, his health has been affected on account of the shockcaused due to the fabricated and false allegations against him and he is unableto travel long distances. Therefore, he sought for the video recording to beshared with him, so that, he can make his written submissions to the Authority.

10. Therefore, vide letter Ref: IRDA/SURV/18-19/OTW/1502 dt 24/01/2019, theAuthority has shared the DVD comprising of the aforesaid video recording inorder to enable the surveyor to make his submissions against the aforesaidvideo recording.

11. Pursuant to the above, vide Letter Ref. GUR/IRDAI/VIDCLA/19 dated 29/01/2019,the surveyor has submitted that he denies the contents of the video and theallegation of misconduct against him. He has also submitted that the videorecording is false, fabricated and morphed with the help of modern technology.

12. Further to the above, vide E-Mail dated 01/02/2019, the surveyor has submittedthat M/s.Universal Sompo General InsuranceCo. Ltd has appointed him for a motor survey job on 18/12/2018 and the saidappointment proves that he has not been blacklisted. In this regard, videLetter dated 06/02/2019, M/s.Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd hascategorically denied the aforesaid appointment of the surveyor and furthermentioned that no survey job has been allotted to the surveyor since September,2018 and as part of systemic control, the insurer has deactivated the surveycode of the surveyor indefinitely.

13. Forensic Analysis of the video recording and Findings:

13.1.Pursuant to the aforesaid submissions vis-à-vis the genuineness of the video,the Authority vide Letter Ref: IRDAI/Surv/Feb-2019/OTW/1509 dated 15/02/2019have submitted the aforesaid video recording to the Forensic Laboratory to besubjected under necessary examination/analysis in order to verify thegenuineness of contents of the video recording.

13.3.Subsequent to the above, The Forensic Laboratory vide Letter Ref:TLH/AV/004/2019dated 19/02/2019 has submitted the Forensic Audio-Video Authentication Reportof the aforesaid video recording. The findings of the Report are as follows,

13.3.1.No abrupt changes in the fluency, tone consistencies, noise floor, background noise,waveforms, spectrograms, pitch and intensity contours were found in the audioof the video recording.

13.3.2.No signs of temporal and spatial distortions were found in the video of therecording indicating that this recording is authentic.

13.3.3. The audio and video in the recording did notcontain any signs of editing or tampering.

13.3.4.It is concluded that the video recording is authentic and represents incidentsrecorded in an event truly occurred.

14. Decision of the Authority:

(a). Itis clear from the facts made available that the surveyor was appointed byM/s.Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd to survey a loss related toKerala Floods. It is alleged that in the connected matter, the surveyor hadsought monetary favours from the insured/claimant to discharge his duty as asurveyor and loss assessor. The surveyor has himself admitted that he had beenarrested by the Police Department of Kerala in this matter. A show cause noticewas issued to the surveyor vide letter dated 20/09/2018 and consequently apersonal hearing was granted to the surveyor on 23/10/2018.

(b). Regulation16(1) of IRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors) Regulations, 2015requires all surveyors to behave ethically and with integrity in their professionalpursuits. The surveyor has submitted that the claimant / insured demanded theloss to be valued at Rs.50 Lakhs. He has also submitted that he was forciblytaken to the police station and that the audio / media clips circulating in themedia are not genuine.

(c). The insurerhas vide letter dated 27/11/2018 submitted evidences and documentary proofs ofthe alleged incident. A video recording shows the surveyor negotiating with theinsured and promising him that he would get the claim amount approved from theinsurer for a commission upfront. However, the video clip and related documentswere received from the insurer only after the personal hearing was granted tothe surveyor.

(d). Therefore,keeping in mind the due process of law, a further opportunity was granted tothe surveyor to make his submissions and a copy of the video clip was sent tothe surveyor. In his submissions vide E-Mail dated 30/01/2019, the surveyorchallenged the genuineness of the video clips and requested the Authority toexamine its genuineness by sending it to a forensic lab/expert opinion. Inlight of his submissions and also to lend maximum credibility to the evidencein hand, the Authority engaged the services of a forensic laboratory. Theforensic laboratory submitted a video-audio authentication report to theAuthority vide letter dated 19/02/2019. The Authentication report concludedthat the video recording is authentic and represents incidents recorded in anevent truly occurred as detailed in Para 13 above.

(e). After considering the submissions made by the surveyor with respect to theviolation and material submitted by theinsurer in support of the misconduct and the forensic analysis report of thesaid video recording, the Authority is of the view thatin the instant case, the surveyor has not behaved ethically and with integrityin his professional capacity and accordingly the continuation of his licensewould be prejudicial to the interests of the policyholders.

15.Therefore, the Authority, in exercise of powersvested under Section 42(D)(6) of the Insurance Act, 1938 and Regulation 24(1)& (2) of the IRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors) Regulations,2015 read with 42D(5)(g) of the Insurance Act, 1938 and Regulation 16(1) of theIRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors) Regulations, 2015 hereby cancelsthe Individual Surveyor and Loss Assessor License (SLA No.13954) issued in thename of Shri. Geddam Uma MaheshwaraRao (SLA No-13954) with immediate effect. Pending works, if any, shall bereturned to the respective insurance companies by the surveyor.

16. Further, if the surveyor isnot satisfied by the order of the Authority, an appeal may be preferred to theSecurities Appellate Tribunal as per the provisions stipulated under Section110 of the Insurance Act, 1938.

Place:Hyderabad Sujay Banarji

Date: 18/03/2019 Member (Distribution)