Mumbai: Why you got that wrong e-challan

Just to evade paying echallans and sometimes even to escape loan sharks some vehicle owners in the city have been found using fake number plates Over the past two months the traffic police have registered 14 FIRs against such vehicle owners in the city This has not only increased the burden on the traffic cops but real owners of the vehicles whose number plates are being illegally used have become victimsThe latest FIR registered at the Malad police station on Thursday by Malad traffic division police constable Dnyaneshwar Kakad refers to a Scooty that had a duplicate number plate for the past three yearsKakad was on duty near the Bata showroom on SV Road around 3 pm when he stopped a blackcoloured Scooty with the number plate MH47AK9985 as the 24yearold youth was driving without a helmetShamsullah Mohd Shafik was using a fake number plate for his twowheeler to avoid loan recovery agentsWhen Kakad took a photo of the number plate and put it on the echallan app he got a lsquostoprsquo message and immediately a call from the transport headquarters in Worli The operator told him that the original owner of the vehicle with the number plate MH47AK9985 was not using it Kakad was also told that the actual owner had been receiving penalty messages on his number When he enquired with the driver of the scooty and asked for the vehiclersquos documents he only gave the insurance receiptAlso Read Mumbai Stolen scooty recovered after thief jumps signalWhen Kakad checked once again using the chassis number and engine number AG7LJ2305346 he found that both the numbers mentioned in the insurance receipt were of a vehicle with the number plate MH47AL9849 When he entered the number MH47AK9985 in the echallan machine it provided details of an Activa scooty whose owner is Vinod Gandubhai Vora The constable then interrogated accused Ravindra Anant Malap after which he confessed to using a fake number plate Malap was later booked and arrested under section 420 of IPC and remanded to judicial custodyShamsullah Mohd Shafik Avoiding loan sharksA similar incident was reported a month back when Malad traffic division ASI Chandrashekhar Dabholkar and his team towed an Activa bearing number MH 47 AL 2801 and four more motorcycles from Govinda Hotel area in Malad West After the motorcycles were dropped at the traffic division office a person by the name Shamsullah Mohd Shafik reached the office and said that the Activa bearing number MH 47 AL 2801 belonged to his friendOnduty ASI Ganesh Satavse asked for the vehiclersquos documents and RC book to which Shafik said that the documents were with his friend who was the vehiclersquos owner When the cop asked him to call his friend he started behaving suspiciously After Satavse reported the matter to senior inspector Narendra Shinde the latter asked him to check the vehicle number on the echallan machine Soon they realised that the number plate was of a different vehicleDuring interrogation Shafik confessed that the vehicle had a fake number plate and the actual number was MH 47 AL 1802 He further revealed that he had a pending loan against the bike and as he had not paid for several months the recovery agents were threatening to seize the vehicle A case was registered at the Malad police station under sections 420 465 and 471 of IPC and he was arrestedIn another incident on July 30 a Maruti Ritz was towed near the DN Nagar traffic chowky and its number plate MH 02 EE 3767 was run through the multimedia cell of the traffic police When they entered the number in the echallan machine against the ownerrsquos mobile number they found out that he was using a fake number plate The cops then called owner Nishant Alora who confessed to using a fake number plate and said that his carrsquos actual number was MH 02 CR 5872 which had a tourist permitOn being questioned further Alora said that he had a loan against his vehicle and to evade the recovery people he changed the number plate The police have registered a case against Alora for cheatingFake number plates for stolen vehiclesSpeaking to midday on the issue Joint Commissioner of Police traffic Yashasvi Yadav said that many people were found to use duplicate number plates for stolen vehicles as well and 21 FIRs had been registered against such peopleYadav further said ldquoSome people use duplicate numbers to avoid echallans but they donrsquot realise that they are committing a crime for which FIRs can be registered against them I appeal to people to not use duplicate numbers because if they do legal action will be takenrdquo21No of FIRs for using fake plates on stolen vehiclesRs 432 crore fine yet to be recoveredAccording to the traffic police from 2016 to July 31 2021 the traffic police have issued a total of 20996200 echallans which adds up to a fine of Rs 6809099004 Out of this Rs 2485394241 has been recovered till July 31 while Rs 4323704763 is still pending To collect the outstanding echallan amount the traffic police will organise a lok adalat from September 25 to 27