ED uncovers illegal toll collection using unauthorised apps at around 100 plazas

The Enforcement Directorate said unauthorised apps were used at around 100 NHAI-authorised toll plazas to collect illegal tolls from vehicles without FASTags. After multi-state searches, the agency seized ₹1.03 crore, documents and digital devices, and froze eight bank accounts

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday claimed that about 100 highway plazas across the country, run by NHAI-authorised entities, used two “unauthorised” apps to collect illegal toll worth crores of rupees from vehicles not bearing FASTag stickers.

The central agency said in a statement that it undertook multi-state searches to probe these allegations on September 2 and raided 14 premises located in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Delhi-NCR.

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FASTag is an RFID passive tag used for making toll payments directly from the customer’s linked prepaid, savings, or current account. It is affixed to the windshield of the vehicle and enables the customer to drive through toll plazas without stopping for any toll payments.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) identified the “unauthorised” online apps as ‘Mobdata’ and ‘Any’, the statement said. The apps were developed and deployed for facilitating collection of toll from vehicles not bearing FASTag stickers and portals were maintained for monitoring such illegal toll collection, it said.

“Forensic examination of digital devices seized from accused revealed that this mechanism was used on around 100 toll plazas, and unauthorised toll receipts running in crores from the digital records have been recorded,” it added.

The ED filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe these charges after taking cognisance of a January 2025 FIR filed by the Mirzapur district police in Uttar Pradesh on allegations of large-scale fraudulent toll collection at the local Atraila Shiv Gulam toll plaza and some other such plazas across the country.

The police complaint stated that the “illegal” apps were used to generate fake receipts and conceal collections from the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) official system, bypassing lawful toll reporting, thereby causing a revenue loss to the authority.

The ED said its probe indicates involvement of intermediaries and toll collection entities, entrusted by the NHAI, in the deployment of unauthorised applications.

It said it has identified a “wider network” of toll plazas and persons/entities which requires further examination. About Rs 1.03 crore in cash, account books, bank documents and digital devices were seized while eight bank accounts were frozen during the raids, the agency said.