E-Paper
Tyre puncture racket in Pune: Citizens’ forum seeks registration, monitoring of tyre repair shops
NIBM annexe forum petitioned the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune police in 2018 seeking a uniform rate policy across the city and the district for tyre puncture repairs.
Pune: The arrest of tyre repair shop owner Francis Sunny Amolik (50) and his associate Prashant Raju Waghmare (28) on Saturday in connection with cheating motorcyclist Sandip Shinde for Rs3,000 on the pretext that his tyre had 26 punctures has brought to the fore the organised racket of looting car drivers and bike riders in the name of puncture repairs.
The NIBM annexe forum had petitioned the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune police in 2018 seeking a uniform rate policy across the city and the district for puncture repairs.
According to the Khadki police, two youth on motorcycle told Shinde, who was riding two-wheeler, that there was less air in the tyre and pointed him to go towards a tyre repair shop on the old Mumbai-Pune highway and sped. A similar modus operandi was adopted by unidentified biker on October 12, 2017, when gynaecologist Dr Meenakshi Yelvantge and her husband Somnath, who were on their way to see patients at Nanded city in their Honda City, were looted of Rs3,200 for repair 32 punctures at a tyre repair shop on Sinhgad road.
On September 22, 2020, Chirag Nimbare of Thane resident, who travelled on his bike from Mumbai to Pune, was robbed of Rs6, 500 for 60 punctures at a tyre repair set up on the highway. In March 2018, Ajay Mahajan, a victim of the racket, captured the crime on camera and lodged a police complaint against tyre repair shop owners.
Joint commissioner of police (law and order) Ravindra Shisve said, “I will look into the matter.”
NIBM annexe forum director Daljeet Goraya said, “This is daylight looting of vehicle users in the name of tyre repairs. We demand that these shops be registered and their operations monitored by authorities.”
