Former BPCL official issued 7 e-challans for traffic violations he didn’t commit
A former executive director at BPCL was shocked to find out that someone had faked his car's registration number and used it on an identical car to receive seven e-challans. Ravi Pratap Suryanath Singh found out about the fake e-challans while on a work-related trip in Bhubaneshwar. When he rang up his son to ask if he had taken the car out, he replied in the negative. Singh is worried that if the car was misused, he would be held responsible. The Nhava Sheva police have registered a case and are on the lookout for the accused.
On May 5, Ravi Pratap Suryanath Singh, director at a private firm, was in Bhubaneshwar on a work-related trip when he received a text message from the Maharashtra transport department that said he was penalised ₹2,000 for speeding in Chembur the day before.
There was nothing out of the ordinary in the message as the registration number was the same as that of his own car. But what perplexed him was the fact that his vehicle was parked at his Ulwe residence when he had left for Odisha. Curious, Singh rang up his son and enquired with him if he had taken the car out, but he replied in negative.
So, the first thing Singh, a former executive director at BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited), did on his return to Navi Mumbai last week was to check his vehicle’s records on the website of the state traffic department. To his shock, there were seven e-challans issued to him between November 2022 and May 2023.
“When I paid a challan in November 2022, I did not ponder when and where I had flouted the traffic rules. But the records showed that an e-challan was also issued in January, followed by five in April and one in May. I mostly travelled this year, so these challans surprised me,” Singh told HT.
Singh said he had even planned to visit the Worli office of the traffic department to find out the details of his violations when he came to know that one could download an e-challan that too had a photo of the vehicle.
“While verifying the e-challans, I found that the vehicle in question was not my car. Someone had faked my car’s registration number and used it on his vehicle which is identical to mine,” he said.
Both the cars were grey-coloured Maruti Suzuki Ciaz with the same number plate but what helped Singh to discern the difference was the variant. “While the accused used a hybrid variant, I have a VXi variant with a back camera, which too was missing in the challan photos,” Singh, 61, said.
A minute check also revealed that the fonts used in both number plates were different and so was the placement of screws, he said. “Besides, there were four people in the conman’s car who were not at all related to me.”
A total of ₹10,700 was to be paid for the six e-challans with the fake number plate, Singh pointed out. “More than the money, I was worried that if the car was misused then I would be held responsible.”
Based on Singh’s complaint, the Nhava Sheva police have registered a case and are on the lookout for the accused.
“A total of seven e-challans were found for offences like speeding and not wearing seat belt. On checking the photos clicked by the CCTV cameras, the complainant realised that the make and colour were same, but the variant was different,” a police officer said.
“We are working on this case in coordination with the Mumbai traffic police. We have found some leads and the accused will be arrested soon,” senior police inspector Sanjeev Dhumal from Nhava Sheva police station said.