Illegal toll collection racket busted,18 held

Police said the PCB had roped in Himani Security and Alliance on a contract basis for collecting toll. The firm had deployed its men at the PCB toll posts. Some employees had allegedly manhandled a driver working for Harmit Transport around two months ago. A case was registered with the Wanavadi police then. Anmolsingh Chaddha,manager of Harmit Transport,later approached the crime branch.

Based on Chaddha’s inputs,the crime branch laid traps at three cantonment toll posts – two near Empress Garden and one behind the Bahirbanala traffic police chowky on Pune-Solapur Road in the early hours on Monday. Eight persons were nabbed from the three toll posts.

The police then raided their main office at Fatimanagar,where seven persons were held and three gunny bags of bogus receipt books,some original receipt books,other documents and cash was seized. The police also arrested three persons who were posing as policemen at the Magarpatta chowk and diverting heavy vehicles from other states towards the cantonment zone,so that the suspects could extort money from them.

The police said that as per cantonment rules,toll on light motor vehicles was Rs 15 and on heavy vehicles was Rs 20. The suspects were collecting the same from local commercial vehicles and issued original receipts,as the local drivers were aware of the toll amount. But the drivers from other states were not aware and hence the suspects collected at least Rs 150 from them and issued bogus receipts.

The police said more persons are associated with the racket. The daily collection at the toll posts was over Rs 1 lakh.

Meanwhile,Chaddha has lodged a complaint of extortion,forgery and cheating against the 18 suspects.