PUNE: A Gultekdi-based commercial vehicle operator introduced a small change in business operations and managed to evade traffic fines amounting Rs81,212.
By simply asking his staff to save his cell phone number as 'e-challan' on their mobile phones, Ajiz Mohammed Shaikh (34) and the 11 drivers he employed dodged traffic fines for nearly four months.
Eventually when Shaikh's luck ran out, the city traffic police swooped in to nab him. On Wednesday, a case of cheating was registered against the operator and the Swargate police took him into custody.
By the time of his arrest, the accused had sent as many as 399 text messages to various persons and duped the city traffic police as well as the state government of Rs81,212.
"In June," senior inspector (Traffic) Vivekanand Wakhare told TOI, "Shaikh had received a text message from the city traffic police. It was an e-challan and he saved the text message after paying the fine."
According to Wakhare, Shaikh owns a fleet of 11 small tempos that are used to ferry goods and he has employed 11 drivers to drive the tempos.
"When he received the SMS, Shaikh came up with an idea and asked his drivers to save his mobile number under the name 'e-challan' on their handsets. He then started sending the text messages to his drivers whenever they would go out to deliver goods," Wakhare shared.
"The drivers would overload their vehicles or keep the rear door of the carriers open to accommodate more goods. If they were caught by the traffic police for violating rules, the drivers would simply show them the fake text messages," he explained.
On Wednesday, when a traffic police constable posted at Swargate was shown one such text message, he became suspicious and decided to check the driver's mobile phone. "An assessment of the cell phone revealed that it was Shaikh's number and not of the traffic police server that is used to send e-challans to offenders," Wakhare said.
The senior officer pointed out that Wakhare would meticulously change the date and time in the text message before sending it to his staff.
The police have arrested Shaikh under sections 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code apart from invoking several provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
By simply asking his staff to save his cell phone number as 'e-challan' on their mobile phones, Ajiz Mohammed Shaikh (34) and the 11 drivers he employed dodged traffic fines for nearly four months.
Eventually when Shaikh's luck ran out, the city traffic police swooped in to nab him. On Wednesday, a case of cheating was registered against the operator and the Swargate police took him into custody.
By the time of his arrest, the accused had sent as many as 399 text messages to various persons and duped the city traffic police as well as the state government of Rs81,212.
"In June," senior inspector (Traffic) Vivekanand Wakhare told TOI, "Shaikh had received a text message from the city traffic police. It was an e-challan and he saved the text message after paying the fine."
According to Wakhare, Shaikh owns a fleet of 11 small tempos that are used to ferry goods and he has employed 11 drivers to drive the tempos.
"When he received the SMS, Shaikh came up with an idea and asked his drivers to save his mobile number under the name 'e-challan' on their handsets. He then started sending the text messages to his drivers whenever they would go out to deliver goods," Wakhare shared.
"The drivers would overload their vehicles or keep the rear door of the carriers open to accommodate more goods. If they were caught by the traffic police for violating rules, the drivers would simply show them the fake text messages," he explained.
On Wednesday, when a traffic police constable posted at Swargate was shown one such text message, he became suspicious and decided to check the driver's mobile phone. "An assessment of the cell phone revealed that it was Shaikh's number and not of the traffic police server that is used to send e-challans to offenders," Wakhare said.
The senior officer pointed out that Wakhare would meticulously change the date and time in the text message before sending it to his staff.
The police have arrested Shaikh under sections 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code apart from invoking several provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
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