CEO of an IT firm alerted authorities that a vehicle with Arabic number plate was driven about the city.
A Toyota FJ Cruiser with an Abu Dhabi registration and the number plate in Arabic has been moving all over Bangalore without proper documents for a week, in gross violation of Motor Vehicles Act.
On Monday morning, Mohan Rajamani, CEO of Cash Technologies and co-founder of Learnhive Education Pvt Ltd, was driving his Range Rover near Lalbagh when he noticed the impressive Toyota FJ Cruiser. Rajamani also noticed that the registration board was in Arabic, in violation of the rule that requires all vehicles to have the registration in English. He found it odd. How could a vehicle registration that cannot be deciphered by the local police or the RTO be allowed to move around in the city?
Rajamani immediately informed the police control room even as he shadowed the car without alerting its occupants.
Adugodi traffic police finally caught up with the imported Toyota in Koramangala—a good 5 km from where Rajamani started following the vehicle.
There were two men, two women and a child in the vehicle. The police learnt that the owner-driver, Hameed, purchased the vehicle six months ago in Abu Dhabi for 50,000 Dirhams (about `7.5 lakh) and had it shipped to Kochi in February. Hameed and the other occupants drove the car to Bangalore a week ago from Kasargod, Hameed’s home town.
Hameed had documents that were relevant in Abu Dhabi, but he had no Indian documents to prove that the vehicle was permitted to run in India or about its ownership.
Vehicle with RTO
Adugodi police seized the vehicle, handed it over to the RTO and informed the Customs officials about the incident and the violations.
Additional commissioner of police (traffic), MA Saleem, said the traffic police had no powers to book such cases as anomalies pertaining to registration fell in the RTO’s jurisdiction, and issues regarding imports, in that of customs and central excise.
Deputy commissioner of police (Traffic- east) Lokesh Kumar said the issue can also be investigated into by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence as the owner lacked proper documents for importing it into India.
KT Halaswamy, regional transport officer, Koramangala, said the RTO would take stringent action if the owner did not have proper documents.
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