Thanks to the alertness and presence of mind shown by a municipal corporator in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), the police managed to bust a racket, in which two ambulances with the same registration number were being used by a Mira Road based establishment to ferry patients in and out of the twin-city.
The matter came to light after Congress corporator- Rajeev Mehra was on his routine inspection drive in his ward, when he stumbled upon two privately owned ambulances having number plates with same registration numbers.
Mehra immediately informed MBVV police commissioner- Sadanand Date, who directed the traffic department to take necessary action on the complaint and within a span of 36 hours both the ambulances were traced and impounded by a team led by Senior Police Inspector (Traffic)- Ramesh Bhame.
“First of all I would like to thank the police for their prompt action. It is crystal clear that such ambulances which are using dubious number plates are ferrying patients sans mandated documents like fitness certificates and insurances. Moreover the authenticity of documents of other ambulances used by the same establishment seem to be dubious. I request the police administration to book the actual offenders who have turned ambulances into an illegal money minting exercise.” said Mehra.
A search on the RTO portal revealed that the ambulance was registered in the name of Gourav Pratishthan.
“Yes, we have impounded both the ambulances and the matter has been handed over to the concerned police station for further investigations.” confirmed Senior Police Inspector (Traffic)- Ramesh Bhame.
Based on the complaint filed by their traffic counterparts, the Mira Road police have registered an offence under section 420 of the IPC.
While two drivers have been taken into custody, a father-son duo who were operating a fleet of ambulances in the region are still at large. A search on the RTO vehicle information application revealed that the ambulance was registered in the name of Gourav Pratishthan.
