Mumbai: Pant Nagar police arrested a man,on Thursday at Ghatkopar. The accused, Mahadev Kanekar, was arrested for selling over 330 two-wheelers with fake Trade Certificate (TC) number without authorisation. The scam came to light when a woman was stopped for violating traffic rules.
When police checked the pending fines with the scooter number, it showed the lady owed Rs 1.24 lakh fine. However when she revealed the scooter was bought eight days ago from Archana Motors, owned by Kanekar, police questioned him and unearthed the scam.
On February 9, a woman was riding past the Derasar Lane at Ghatkopar (E) and was stopped by a traffic police constable for entering a ‘No Entry’ lane. The woman, was riding a scooter, with the registered number- MH-03-TC-337, and the traffic police checked through the system to check for any pending fines. The police informed her she had unpaid fines of Rs 1.24 lakh.
The woman protested saying she has not flouted the rules. A traffic police official said, “The woman informed she had purchased the scooter just eight days ago from Kanekar’s shop and claimed she had not flouted any rules since the time she she had purchased it. Suspecting a bigger racket, the constable detained her vehicle and fined her for riding in a No Entry lane.”
The police began investigating the matter further. They questioned Kanekar and asked his documents. During tghe interrogation, Kanekar revealed he had sold the Hero Pleasure scooter to the woman for Rs 67,000 using a bogus TC number. Kanekar also said, he had sold over 330 other two-wheelers from January 2016, using a bogus TC number.
“Police discovered the same modus operandi was used by several vehicle dealers in the eastern suburbs, where the same TC number was given to several two-wheelers in different parts of the city. When we ran the TC number MH-03-TC-337 through our system, the two-wheelers bearing this number had violated many traffic rules,” a senior traffic police official said.
Enquiries revealed Archana Motors and other two-wheeler dealers had used a bogus TC number, issued by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Wadala. The dealers sold many vehicles fraudulently, by cheating the state government which has caused a huge revenue loss. Right now, Kanekar has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and forgery. Police said, all accused persons involved in the crime will be arrested in the course of investigation.
