BENGALURU: Transport department officials on Sunday stumbled upon a Rolls Royce Phantom, which was earlier owned by Amitabh Bachchan. But documents were not changed to the name of a realtor, who had purchased the vehicle from the actor.
The transport department conducted a special drive against luxury cars and seized seven vehicles for non-payment of taxes and not carrying relevant documents.
The operation was conducted near UB City on Vittal Mallya Road on Sunday evening. “The Rolls-Royce Phantom car bearing a Maharashtra registration number was stopped for checking. The driver, who introduced himself as Salman Khan, failed to produce documents and said that his father had bought the car from Bachchan.
The car was still in the name of the actor and the current owner had not transferred the car ownership to his name, though it was bought in 2019,” a transport department official said.Further probe revealed that the car has been bought by Yusuf Shariff alias D Babu, who runs Umrah Developers.
“As per rules, vehicles with registration numbers of other states cannot ply beyond 11 months from the date of change of ownership,” the official added.
“But the car had exchanged hands in February 2019. It is found that the actor had sold the car for Rs 6 crore and the letter signed by him was produced by Babu. He has been asked to produce all valid documents and further action will be initiated if he fails to produce the documents,” the official added.
During the drive, seven luxury cars, like Porsche, Land Rover, and Jaguar that were parked near UB City, were seized. They were impounded for plying without paying taxes, not having valid documents and insurance. It was found that most of the vehicles had no valid insurance and five were registered in Puducherry, where road tax is less. On Monday, owners of three vehicles produced documents and renewed their lapsed insurance, the official said.