Mumbai traffic police file 17 FIRs against e-challan violators over fake or wrong number plates

In January this year, the Mumbai traffic police received a complaint from the chief minister’s office that industrialist Ratan Tata had received two e-challans for offences which he had not committed

In January this year, the Mumbai traffic police received a complaint from the chief minister’s office that industrialist Ratan Tata had received two e-challans for offences which he had not committed.

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Investigation revealed the traffic violations were committed by one Gitanjalli Shah, owners of Narendra Forwarders Pvt Ltd, who had duplicated Tata’s vehicle number plate.

But Shah is not be the only person who has been driving around in Mumbai with a duplicate number plate.

The Mumbai traffic police decided to send their personnel door-to-door to recover 2.9 million unpaid e-challans which add up to a whopping ₹315 crore.

Teams of constables have been asked to visit the addresses of violators who have not paid e-challans of more than ₹5,000 targeting top 25,000 people who collectively owe ₹120 crore to the traffic department.

According to Pravin Padwal, additional commissioner of police (traffic), on visiting the houses of traffic violators, they found that several defaulters were using either fake, non- registered or stolen vehicle numbers.

The drive which started from June 14 has not only seen Mumbai traffic police collect ₹1 crore in fines, it has also revealed that there could be many vehicle owners who are either using fake number plates or non registered vehicles.

In a months period since the drive started, Mumbai traffic police has registered FIRs against 17 vehicle owners for allegedly using fake number plates or unregistered vehicles. Separate FIRs are registered against these vehicle owners. Of the 17, 12 were using fake number plates, two were using unregistered vehicles and three were found allegedly plying stolen vehicles.

The exercise to go door-to-door was initiated after traffic police officials found that several e-challans, in the past six years, had not been reached the violator and was being delivered to someone else.

“We verify the addresses and issue a notice to pay the fine amount. There are several addresses where the vehicle owners have moved out or have meddled with the number plates to mislead the traffic officers and cameras,” said Kishore Shinde, senior police inspector of Mankhurd traffic station.

Traffic police officers now realise that this could be one of the reasons why the e-challan system was not operating efficiently and had a backlog of 2.9 million unpaid e-challans.