Maharashtra: Vasai RTO finds 60 vehicles from Arunachal Pradesh with fake chassis, engine nos; activists say its 'scam'

The transport officials have found fake engine and chassis numbers on 60 vehicles mostly buses and trucks from Arunachal Pradesh at the Vasai regional transport office RTO in Maharashtra in the past three years The transporters and activists have claimed it to be a huge scam the PTI reported on ThursdayAccording to the PTI the Vasai RTO office which has jurisdiction over the Palghar district of Maharashtra has claimed that these vehicles might have been registered with bogus documents in Arunachal Pradesh before being transferred to Maharashtra as the engine and chassis numbers did not match with the records of their manufacturers as per official documents accessed by PTIThe documents suggest that the Vasai RTO got the vehicle records verified through the authorised dealers of the respective automobile manufacturers It filed a police case last month and also wrote to other RTOs in the state stressing the need to track these vehicles 34 buses and 26 trucks as per the news agencyLast year the Vashi RTO had filed a similar case concerning about half a dozen Arunachalregistered busesTransporters and activists wondered how the officials at Vasai RTO failed to spot the fake chassis and engine numbers of such a large number of vehicles RTO staff are well trained to identify if the chassis and engine numbers of a vehicle are tampered with just one look they said as per the PTIThe vehicles might have been transferred out of the northeastern state to evade taxes or escape other compliance issues they suspectDashrath Waghule deputy regional transport officer of Vasai RTO said that on the directives of the transport commissioners office they checked their records of Arunachal Pradeshregistered vehicles in the last three years and during the process they learnt about these 60 vehicles the PTI reported on ThursdayThe police investigation is underway the officials saidPrime facie it looks like the vehicles were registered with bogus documents in Arunachal Pradesh Waghule saidGenerally vehicles are transferred to Maharashtra from other states after buying or selling or a change in the owners addressActivist Shirkant Karve who has in the past raised the issue of alleged noncompliance with the Motor Vehicles Act by RTOs questioned how so many vehicles with bogus chassis and engine numbers from a particular state were registered at Vasai RTO when every vehicle undergoes the fitness renewal process while being transferred to Maharashtra from outsideAs per procedure RTO inspectors are expected to check the fitness of a vehicle besides verifying its chassis and engine numbers before transferring it to their RTO from other states Karve told the PTIA senior RTO inspector who is not authorised to speak to the media told PTI that a vehicle owner first applies to the assistant RTO of the office where they want to register itAfter verifying documents including the No Objection Certificate NOC from the source RTO the assistant RTO directs inspectors to register the vehicle after checking its fitness The process also includes verification of the chassis and engine numbersAccording to RTO officials and agents the buses must be the ones auctioned by banks after their owners defaulted on EMI payments while the trucks are those BSIV Bharat Stage Emission Standards 4 which dealers might have failed to sell before the government deadlineThey said that the vehicles were registered in Arunachal Pradesh where the nationwide online vehicle registration system Vahan4 was not operational then on the basis of physical bogus documentsNOCs were then arranged from there for the reregistration of the vehicles in MaharashtraAccording to bus operators the list of the Arunachal Pradeshregistered buses at Vasai RTO could be longer as they may not have the data of those vehicles that have already been transferred to other RTOs in Maharashtra or neighbouring states through themKV Shetty a leader of bus operators claimed that he had alerted transport officials including the ones from the Vasai RTO about the Arunachalregistered buses But they ignored it he saidA CBI probe should be ordered in this scam Shetty said adding that now the RTO is taking action against the current owners of the buses First it should take action against its inspectors and ARTOs for reregistering the vehicles without proper verification he saidDuring Covid banks seized several buses over the nonpayment of loan EMIs said an RTO agent While banks auctioned the vehicles government tax was due on them Instead of paying tax the persons who bought these buses registered them in other states after tampering with chassis and engine numbers he saidBefore registering in Arunachal Pradesh the auctioned buses were not officially scrapped as they had their taxes pending Now one bus is live at two RTOs with two chassis and engine numbers he saidAccording to RTO officials vehicles that are more than 8 years old are not allowed to ply in Mumbai Therefore several overaged vehicles were first registered in Arunachal Pradesh reducing their age with fake documents and then reregistered in Maharashtra they saidwith PTI inputs