Number plate scam: Three Haryana transport dept staff arrested

A case under Sections 409, 468, 471 and 120 B of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under Section 13(1) of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act was registered at Sector 17 police station on the complaint of Purnima Singh, the then DSP, Chief Minister Haryana Flying Squad, against Vinay Dhall and other officials of Transport Commissioner Office, Haryana.

During the investigation, it came to light that initially one Ravinder Singh, a Sector 19 resident, made a complaint (pseudonymous) in February, 2014, to the IGP, CM Flying Squad, regarding embezzlement in registration fee of fancy number plates for vehicles.

According to the case, as per the notification, registration numbers between 0001 to 0100 are allotted after charging additional fees. Between March and October 2013, fake receipts of 37 vehicles were issued and the actual amount received for vanity numbers from car owners was not deposited with the government treasury.

All the accused in connivance, allotted the number and issued registration certificates (RC). The total amount as registration fee of these 37 vehicles was found to be Rs 45.31 lakh.

Police said that Dhall was then posted as assistant to Shiv Kumar, then computer operator and Rajinder Kumar who was then posted as a cashier, and together they misappropriated the amount. Police said that during the interrogation the accused disclosed that they used to take huge amounts to issue vanity numbers, but the same amount were not deposited in the government treasury.