Deluge victim wins 4 lakh Insurance Claim for car

. Mumbai: Seven years after the July 26 deluge, a consumer forum ordered the New India Insurance Co Ltd to pay a Juhu resident Rs 3.84 lakh he had claimed after his car was "severely damaged due to the flood waters". The company will also pay the complainant A B Gupta Rs 10,000 as costs of the complaint.      A B Gupta owned a Honda City, which was insured with the company. However, the vehicle suffered severe damages in the 2005 deluge and Gupta filed an insurance claim and sought Rs 5.16 lakh in damages. However, theinsurance company only sent Gupta a cheque of Rs 1.98 lakh he refused to accept it. At a later date, the firm sent him Rs 3.76 lakh through its agent. Gupta did not accept this and stated that the amount due to him was Rs 3.84 lakh.      In March 2007, Gupta sent a legal notice to the company and sought the amount with 18 % interest. However, the insurance refused. The company then said since it had made an error in calculation the amount payable was only Rs 3.28 lakh. An aggrieved Gupta filed a complaint with the forum on March 13, 2008.      The firm filed its response and said according to the estimations presented by the surveyor it was liable to pay only Rs 1.98 lakh. The company also alleged that a senior surveyor was later appointed by them and he pegged the damage at Rs 3.84 lakh. It stated that the repairs for the car had cost Gupta Rs 5.16 lakh.      However, since Gupta had got a discount at the service centre, he only paid Rs 3.76 lakh and this was the amount the firm had then agreed to pay him. However, the forum held that the insurance company could not keep "accepting and rejecting the survey report according to its own will". The forum held the company guilty of deficiency of service.