Yusuf Shariff, who was in the news for being the new owner of the Rolls Royce Phantom that was previously owned by Amitabh Bachchan seized by Bengaluru RTO for road tax violation, has cleared out the suspense for the reason why he hadn’t transferred the vehicle in his name.

A prominent scrap dealer from Bengaluru, Shariff said that the insurance money on the Rolls Royce Phantom was pending for three months, which is why he did not want to own the car for a long time. As he was looking for selling the car again, he refrained from re-registering the Phantom in his name. If he had registered the car in his name, he would have become the second owner of the car, and the new owner would have been its third owner. It would have brought the asking price of the Phantom down. Thus, he decided to not transfer the car in his name for saving the loss of money, due to the transfer and that of insurance.

Rolls Royce was seized recently

In a special drive carried out by Bengaluru RTO in the UB City recently, a white-coloured Rolls Royce Phantom, along with six other premium cars, was seized, due to insufficient documents. The car was previously owned by Amitabh Bachchan, who himself got this car as a gift from a renowned film producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra in 2007. Back then, the base price of a Rolls Royce Phantom was Rs 3.5 crore.

After using it for a few years, Mr Bachchan sold this car to Bengaluru-based Umrah Developers, a firm owned by Yusuf Shariff. Apart from Phantom, Umrah Developers also owns other premium cars in Mysuru. At the time of inspection, the person driving the Phantom showed the documents to the officials, which turned out to be fake. When summoned by Bengaluru RTO, Shariff failed to submit the original transfer documents.

Popularly known as ‘Gujari Babu’ in his business circuits, Yusuf Shariff started his scrap business in Kolar, Karnataka and built his assets by purchasing profitable properties and machinery from the government in public auctions. Due to his potential as a top-rated funder, he recently got the MLC poll ticket with the help of MLA Zamir Ahmed Khan, a close aide of former chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah.

Not transferring the ownership is illegal

Not transferring car ownership to the new owner is illegal in India and can cause consequences. In this age of digital challans, the authorities send the challan to the registered owner online. If the transfer of ownership does not take place, it means that the previous owner will get the challan. Also, in case of any illegal activity done with the car, the registered car owner is held responsible. This is why it is important to transfer the ownership of the vehicle to the new owner as soon as the car is sold.