Cops send traffic challans for stolen bike to owner with photos of the Yamaha FZ16!

Imagine getting your bike stolen by thieves and then continuously receiving e-challans of the same bike. Weird? That’s what has happened with a resident of Kushaiguda, Hyderabad. He has been receiving e-challans for Yamaha FZ motorcycle. His bike was stolen from him more than a year ago. This comes as a case of police negligence and a lax in updating the database. The e-challans which we sent to him over a course of 6 months were caught by traffic cameras which have been installed across the city for catching traffic rules violators.

The whole matter harks its origin back to January 29, 2019. According to a report by Indian Express, This was the day when S Seshadri, a resident of Netaji Nagar of Kushaiguda, lodged a complaint with the local police. His complaint stated that his Yamaha FZ motorcycle (registration no AP 29AF 9635) was stolen while it was parked in front of his house. A case was registered at Kushaiguda police station, under Rachakonda commissionerate, in January 2018. However, the bike was never found. What found its way to Seshadri, however, were a total of six challans from different dates which were registered against his bike.

While Seshadri had apparently made peace with the loss of his bike, he was both shocked and annoyed when he started receiving these challans out of the blue. The six challans that were issued against its bike had dates ranging between June to December 2018. All of them were for not wearing a helmet while riding the bikes and the cameras even clicked pictures of the bike with the rider who was on the bike at that time. Upon being contacted, Rachakonda police said they would expedite the investigation and help the complainant with the challans.

The six challans issued against the Yamaha FZ total up to a sun of Rs. 810, which includes Rs. 600 (Rs. 100 per challan for not wearing a helmet) and Rs. 35 (user charge). The whole case was shared on Facebook by a user along with the FIR details of the case (65/2018 of Kushaiguda police station) and challans issued to the bike owner. The facebook post stated:

 “A bike was stolen and a complaint was raised in January 2018 at Kushaiguda police station. Looks like Kushaiguda police are in a mood to relax. After this complaint was registered, six challans for various violations were issued. Photographs are available too. The challans did not reach the bike but the owner’s house.”

This seems to be a case of database update negligence. The database which keeps a record of all the vehicles along with the owner’s details need to be updated if a case is lodged reporting the loss of the bike. This is done to ensure that situations like the one here don’t arise. For the same reason, when a person sells his vehicle, it needs to be transferred to the name of the buyer. If this is not done and the vehicle gets caught in any unlawful happening (traffic violations, any criminal activity among other things), the police run the registration plates through its database and nab the owner of the vehicle. Therefore, always get your vehicle transferred if you sell the vehicle and complete the paperwork properly.