Action was taken against these rickshaw drivers at various police stations, including Yerwada, Kondhwa, Market Yard and Bibwewadi.
Regional transport official Madhav Suryavanshi lodged a complaint against 11auto drivers in these police stations, following which eight were arrested. The arrested rickshaw drivers have been identified as Ritesh Vilas Chavan, a resident of Yerwada, Kishor Das, Amol Hawale, Nitin Kamble, Shakir Pansare, all residents of Kondhwa Budruk, Prashant Bhandare, a resident of Pisoli, Yonis Khalil Shaikh, a resident of Ganj Peth and Umesh Ghindale, a resident of Bibwewadi.
Apart from these, three others have been booked by the police and are yet to be nabbed. The RTO has been carrying out a surprise drive to curb the menace of illegal autorickshaw drivers. As part of this drive, the crime of the arrested drivers had come to light last week.
According to the transport officials, while inspecting these rickshaws, they found that there were some vehicles which were transferred to another region but the drivers tampered with the documents, changed the vehicle registration number and continued to ply in the city illegally.
In some cases, the vehicle identification number (VIN) was tampered with and the owners were illegally ferrying passengers across the city.
Police have booked all of them under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating, along with other sections of the Motor Vehicle Act 1988. Sub inspector BY Raut of Kondhwa police station, who is investigating the case, told Pune Mirror, “The action was taken based on the complaints of RTO officer. These rickshaw drivers deliberately made changes in the documents in order to avoid paying taxes and permit renewal fees.It is a case of cheating due to which the government has lost revenue. There are other drivers against whom complaints have been filed and similar action will be taken soon.“
Source : Mirror
