State transport officials have found fake engine and chassis numbers on 60 vehicles, mostly buses and trucks, from Arunachal Pradesh that were re-registered at the Vasai regional transport office (RTO) in the past three years.
According to sources, these vehicles might have been registered with bogus documents in Arunachal Pradesh before being transferred to Maharashtra as the engine and chassis numbers did not match with the records of their manufacturers.
"Vasai RTO got the vehicle records verified through the authorised dealers of the respective automobile manufacturers. It filed a police case last month and also wrote to other RTOs in the state, stressing the need to track these vehicles – 34 buses and 26 trucks" said an official.
Last year, the Vashi RTO had filed a similar case concerning about half a dozen Arunachal-registered buses.
Questions raised over RTO officials' action
Transporters and activists wondered how the officials at Vasai RTO failed to spot the fake chassis and engine numbers of such a large number of vehicles.
"The vehicles might have been transferred out of the northeastern state to evade taxes or escape other compliance issues, official suspected.
An official of transport department said that while checking records of registered vehicles in the last three years, and during the process, they learnt about these 60 vehicles.
Investigation underway
“The police investigation is underway. Prime facie, it looks like the vehicles were registered with bogus documents " said an official..
Generally, vehicles are transferred to Maharashtra from other states after buying or selling or a change in the owner’s address. As per procedure, RTO inspectors check the fitness of a vehicle besides verifying its chassis and engine numbers before transferring it to their RTO from other states,
A senior RTO inspector, who is not authorised to speak to the media said that a vehicle owner first applies to the assistant RTO of the office where they want to register it.
"After verifying documents, including the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the source RTO, the assistant RTO directs inspectors to register the vehicle after checking its fitness. The process also includes verification of the chassis and engine numbers," he said.
