CHENNAI: A two-year investigation into a multi-crore scam in registration of 359 banned BS-IV vehicles by the Tamil Nadu Transport department has culminated in the arrest of the mastermind – a techie employed as a contract programmer by the department.
Greater Chennai Police sources said that the Central Crime Branch’s Forgery Document Investigation Wing arrested the accused, Boopathy, a few weeks ago based on a complaint filed by Pon Senthilnathan, joint transport commissioner, Chennai (south zone), alleging fraudulent registration of 359 BS-IV vehicles at the regional transport offices (RTO) of Chennai (South) and Chennai (Southwest) in the 2019-22 period.
According to the FIR, registered on May 31 under sections for forgery, cheating and others, the transport department had stopped registering BS-IV vehicles as its sale was banned from April 1, 2020, as per directions of Supreme Court and instructions of the Union Ministry of Road Transport.
In an internal investigation, the TN transport department found that 359 BS-IV vehicles lying unsold with dealers were issued fake registration certificates (RC) after this period. Boopathy made false backlog entry in the system by misusing transport staff’s user ID and password for vehicle data entry, verification, and approval by taking advantage of their lack of computer knowledge.
In collusion with vehicle dealers, Boopathy, who worked as an authorised programmer with the department on contract basis from 2019-22, allegedly made backlog entries for these BS-IV vehicles using unallotted registration numbers (totalling numeral 8, for instance). The RCs were issued under the pretext of transactions like change of address, transfer of ownership, etc.
While 42 such vehicles were registered at the RTO Chennai South, 315 were done at RTO Meenambakkam in the Chennai (Southwest) division. The transport department also placed under suspension the following officers: P Krishnakumar (PA to RTO), C Vijayalakshmi (Junior assistant) and K Karunakaran, RTO. This was because their user name and password were allegedly used by Boopathy to conduct the fraudulent transactions, the FIR notes.