The Police Department, in its zeal to ensure 100% compliance of the helmet rule, seems to have committed a faux pas after a car driver was issued a challan for driving his vehicle without wearing a helmet.
R. Umamaheswara Rao of Tirupati however is not amused.
Mr. Rao said he was surprised to see an SMS from the Srikalahasti traffic police directing him to pay an e-challan of ₹135 by March 1 against his car bearing registration number AP03-BZ-7345. The reason cited was failure to wear helmet.
The e-challan was however withdrawn subsequently after the department came under fire for its alleged ‘casual approach’ when it came to wrongly penalising road users.
When contacted by The Hindu, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Srikalahasti) P. Ramakrishna clarified that it was due to a typo made by his field staff due to which the department ended up penalising the wrong person.
Caught on the wrong foot, the department later correctly identified the ‘actual violator’, a motorcyclist, and slapped the fine on him.