Mumbai: Man gets e-challan on his vehicle number used by imposter, lodges complaint

A 63-year-old man from Mira Road had recently received an e-challan from the Mumbai Traffic Police informing about a traffic violation involving his vehicle. The victim was left baffled after he saw the photo evidence proof provided in the challan, since the vehicle involved was a bullet motorcycle, whereas the victim has a scooty. On closing inspecting the photo, the victim realised that someone had used his scooty's vehicle registration number on his bullet to evade traffic challans, after which the victim lodged a police complaint.

According to the Naya Nagar police, in 2016, the victim, a resident of Babasaheb Ambedkar Road in Mira Road, had purchased a scooty. On July 15, around 4:25 pm, when the victim was at home, he received an online e-challan through a text message, from the Mumbai Traffic Police informing that a Rs 500 traffic violation fine has been imposed on his vehicle. The victim then clicked on the link provided in the message and learnt that the place of traffic violation was at Tardeo.

Since the victim had not taken his vehicle to Tardeo area, as claimed in the message, the victim downloaded a photo proof provided in the link and was baffled to see that the vehicle involved in traffic violation was a bullet which had the same vehicle registration number as that of the victim's scooty. Having realised that someone has purposefully made a bogus vehicle registration number plate of the victim's vehicle in order to dodge the e-challans, the victim approached the police and lodged a complaint in this regard on Tuesday, police said.

The police have registered a case on charges of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery, forgery for purpose of cheating, necessity for registration and using vehicle without registration.