Hyderabad Traffic Police crack down on E-Challan evaders, 35 charged with cheating for tampering number plates

Motorists who tampered with their vehicle number plates are now facing criminal cases under section 420 of the IPC in Hyderabad. Hyderabad traffic police are conducting special drives to check such rule violations and driving by minors.

Hyderabad: When Hyderabad Traffic police introduced the e-challan system for checking the traffic rule violation, it was billed as a path-breaking initiative to bring a semblance of order on Hyderabad roads. The traffic policeman equipped with digital cameras began shooting pictures of traffic violators and later send them the challan. The CCTV cameras on traffic signposts were also used to take photos of the errant motorists.

But trust the Hyderabadis to come up novel solutions to hoodwink the cops. They began tinkering with the number plates, often disfiguring a digit in the number plate or sometimes twisting the metal number plate in such a way that the number is not caught in photos. Some had even removed the plates, while more enterprising had pillion riders covering the plate with notebooks, hands or even dupattas.

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But the police officers too got the better of these enterprising youth. Now they began slapping criminal cases against such ingenious motorcyclists. When they find a two-wheeler without number plate or tampered one, they are now registering cases of cheating under the section 420 of the IPC.

In a special drive taken up last week, the Hyderabad traffic police got cheating cases, under section 420 of the IPC, registered against 35 vehicle owners at differet police stations for these number plate rule violations. A chargesheet is to filed in the court of law and a regular trial is to take place shortly. A conviction under section 420 can be a jail term of seven years with or without fine.

During this special drive, the police also registered cases against 40 persons for allowing minors to drive their vehicles. Law stipulates that a minor can not drive a vehicle because he is eligible to get a driving license only afrer becoming major.

The traffic police officers say such special drives will be taken up regularly and appealed to people to have proper registration plates to fixed. They also warned people not to hand over their vehicles to minors which is a punishable offense under Sections 180/177 of the MV Act, which entails a penalty of thee months in jail or fine of Rs.5000 or both.