HYDERABAD: In a comedy of errors, a Hyderabad denizen — who had been out of town for a fortnight— was issued an over-speeding challan recently, though his car was locked away in the parking lot of his apartment complex at the time of the ‘violation’.
Making matters more absurd, a photograph of the offence attached to the challan showed a white Mahindra TUV 400, while the resident owned a Maruti Swift. Both the cars, however, had the same number plate.
On October 29, Rajesh Kumar was issued a challan of Rs 1,035 for over speeding at 11:22 am in Aziznagar by Rajendra Nagar Traffic Police.
He said that his Maruti Swift was at the parking lot of his apartment at the time of the incident.
“The traffic police sent me this challan, but my car has been parked in my apartment since November 10,” said Kumar.
As silly as this goof-up may sound, citizens fear that their number plates may get exploited for illegal purposes, and in turn, land them in trouble.
Officials from the Regional Transport Office (RTO), who issue registration numbers, maintain that the mix-up occurs when miscreants forge their number plates in a bid to get away with wrongful activity.
According to experts, the issue continues to persist primarily because the use of High-Security Registration Plates is still left to the choice of the vehicle owner and is not enforced.
Therefore, the Transport Department has no control over the number plates used by those persons opting out of the HSRP system.
Durga Prasad, the RTO, said that citizens must approach the local police and report issues like these without fail so that their registration numbers are not further misused. The police said that the citizens must report such issues on the e-challan website to enlarge the database of fake numbers.
“Physical checking of vehicles is our only option now. We urge citizens to report the issue,” said DCP Vijay Kumar, Cyberabad police.