Man caught using retired prof’s licence plate number

A 55-year-old man is facing a criminal case for using a fake vehicle registration number on his car to avoid traffic fines and FASTag payments at toll booths.

Swamynathan K, a resident of Rangappa Cross, Lalbagh West Gate, Chikkamavalli, has been using the registration number of a retired professor for the last few months on his white Maruti Swift bearing original registration number KA-01-ML-0215.

Retired professor Dr H K Lakshmipathaiah, who also owns a white Maruti Swift with the registration number KA-05-ML-0215, was receiving messages notifying him of money being deducted from his bank account whenever Swamynathan passed through a toll booth. The professor was also getting notices of traffic violations. Police traced down Swamynathan’s car and served him a notice.

Having received notifications over the past couple of months, Dr Lakshmipathaiah filed a complaint with the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic-South) on March 7.

Police deployed traffic constable Manjunath to trace the conman.

Recently, Swamynathan used FASTag at the Electronics City toll plaza. Manjunath could not get the requisite information immediately. But with technical assistance, Manjunath compared the registration numbers of vehicles of similar make and traced KA-01-ML-0215 to Swamynathan.

On March 30, Manjunath visited the address mentioned in the registration certificate and spotted the white Maruti Swift parked on the roadside with the registration number of Dr Lakshmipathaiah’s vehicle. Manjunath produced the vehicle before the ACP and lodged a complaint with the Subramanyapura Police.

A senior officer said police have registered a case under charges including cheating and forgery. “We have served a notice to Swamynathan to appear for interrogation. We seized his vehicle. He had no FASTag sticker on his vehicle and told toll plaza staff that he had lost it,” the officer said.