Cab driver exposes fake RTO tax receipt racket, 1 caught

GHAZIABAD: Police claimed to have busted a gang that issued fake road tax receipts to commercial vehicles from different states entering Uttar Pradesh, after arresting one person. They said the gang has been active for the past three years and has caused a loss of over Rs 3 crore to the state exchequer.
The accused, Manoj, operated out of a makeshift wooden booth near NH-24 in Indirapuram. Police recovered a huge cache of fake receipts, one laptop, one printer and Rs 16,000 in cash, besides fake rubber stamps of RTOs of Delhi, UP and Uttarakhand.

Police also said they have found a website the gang used to issue fake receipts. SP (City) Akash Tomar said, “We’re trying to identify the person against whose name the website is registered. We’ve come across just one booth so far, but it’s possible other booths exist elsewhere. The cyber cell has been asked to find out from how many places this website was accessed.”

“It’s not a case of phishing, where a mirror website redirects traffic to a different URL. The gang used a website with a different name altogether, which issued tax receipts similar in design to the official ones. This booth alone used to collect Rs 30,000 daily,” said Tomar.

He added the accused has revealed some names, who could be the brains behind this scheme. However, cops have ruled out the role of RTO officials in the scam. “We’ll speak to the transport department, but so far, names of none of its staff has cropped up,” the SP said.

The scam came to light on Wednesday after a tax receipt issued to cab driver Akshay Kumar was identified as fake by transport officials. The driver called police, and on the basis of his complaint, an FIR for cheating was registered against Manoj.

Talking to TOI, Kumar said, “I’ve been paying road tax at this booth for some time. As usual, I paid it here on Wednesday and was on my way to Greater Noida when I was stopped by RTO officials. I showed them the receipt, but they said it was fake. I paid them Rs 2,000 to escape, and drove to Indirapuram. In the meantime, I had called members of our cab drivers’ union and got one more receipt issued for another vehicle, which also turned to be fake. Then we called police.”