KALLAKURICHI: A private bus was seized by Regional Transport Department officials near Ulundurpet for using the registration number of another bus. The owner has been asked to produce the second bus with documents for further investigation.
According to sources from the Ulundurpet RTO office, a private bus carrying 23 passengers was travelling from Madurai to Chennai on Monday afternoon. The bus, driven by Suresh (43) of Natham, Dindigul district, was stopped at a tollgate on the Trichy-Chennai Highway near Sengkuruchi. Toll staff noticed that another bus with the same registration number had passed earlier that day. The incident was reported to the Ulundurpet police and RTO office.
RTO officials, led by Regional Transport Officer G. Rajkumar, inspected the bus and its documents. It was found that both buses were owned by Senthilkumar of Puducherry. Senthilkumar has been summoned to produce the second bus at the Ulundurpet RTO office with its documents, and the first bus has been seized.
“We suspect that the same registration number was used for both buses to evade taxes. Once the verification of buses and documents is complete, the owner will be made to pay the taxes and penalties for the violations committed. This will recover the revenue that was attempted to be evaded,” said RTO Rajkumar.
Officials added that further action will be taken, including penalties for registration number forgery. Earlier, the bus driver refunded ₹200 to the passengers after the bus was seized. However, the passengers argued as they had each paid ₹900 for tickets and were dropped off halfway. Later, they took alternative buses to reach Chennai as they did not receive proper response from the driver.