Man goes for loan against SUV, realise he was allotted fake registration number

A resident of Gurugram discovered that the registration number of his SUV was fake when he tried to take a loan against it. He has filed a police complaint.

A city resident was in for shock when he attempted to take a loan against his SUV, which he was using for the past several years. The bank he approached for the loan informed him that the registration number, which was allotted by the Haryana transport department, was a fake, after which he filed a police complaint, senior officers said on Tuesday.

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According to police, 48-year-old Niranjan Kumar Pandey, a resident of Avenue-69 in Sector-69, purchased a Scorpio from a car showroom in Sector 18 on January 5, 2017. Police said the showroom authorities got all documents processed and Pandey was allotted his vehicle registration number.

They said Pandey alleged that he had to pay ₹1.5 lakh more to the showroom authorities for getting all the documents for the registration processed

However, in November 2019, when Pandey approached a bank at Vatika Business Park in Sector 49 for a loan against his SUV, he was told that his registration number was a fake.

Investigators said bank officials, while processing the loan, found that Pandey’s vehicle registration number was actually allotted to someone else and thus denied the loan to Pandey. They said the bank authorities also informed Pandey that the signature of the transport department official on his registration certificate was invalid.

Pandey approached police and submitted a complaint to them as well as the regional transport office (RTO) of Gurugram.

However, no action was taken by either department. So he moved the court on August 2 this year, and on the court’s orders, an FIR was registered against the two authorities of the car showroom, which is now defunct, and unidentified officials of transport department under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forging valuable security or will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using forged document or record as genuine) of Indian Penal Code at Palam Vihar police station on Monday.

A senior police officer said surprisingly, Pandey had been using his SUV all these years and was never caught during vehicle checking.

“Only after scrutiny of documents submitted for allotting his SUV’s registration number, would it become clear what forgery had taken place,” he said, asking not to be named.

A senior transport department official, on condition of anonymity, said that matter was old and he could not immediately comment on it.

Subhash Boken, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said they will soon serve notice to transport department officials and the defunct showroom owner to provide records for investigation. “Further action will be taken,” he said.