Long-closed booth among sites used for registration
Chandigarh: The investigation into the scam recently unearthed by the UT Vigilance Department at the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) has revealed that 142 high-end vehicles, including Mercedes, BMW, Range Rover, Audi and Jaguar, were registered on fake addresses in Chandigarh between January and June this year.
Residents staying there are unaware about cars being registered on their addresses.
In June this year, the Vigilance Department had uncovered a scam in which the invoice of vehicles was forged, showing these to be of a lesser value, to pay less registration fee, which runs into lakhs.
Four such cases were detected in which forged documents were submitted to the RLA to get vehicles registered following which two BMWs, a Mercedes and a Range Rover were impounded.
Sources said Vigilance sleuths had sought the records of high-end cars registered in Chandigarh from January 1 onwards from the RLA. The investigation revealed that 1,182 high-end vehicles were registered in the city in six months.
The sources said the Vigilance sleuths physically verified the addresses during which it was found that 142 vehicles were registered on fake addresses on the basis of fake documents.
The investigation also revealed that after the December 2015 Supreme Court orders banning the registration of new diesel-guzzling luxury cars and SUVs with an engine capacity of 2,000 cc in the National Capital Region (NCR), many diesel cars were registered in Chandigarh on the basis of fake documents.
Two persons, who used to work as commission agents, were arrested by the Vigilance after their role in the case was established.
The Vigilance sleuths are now investigating how the vehicles were registered at the RLA on fake documents.
A booth in Sector 26, which has been lying closed for long, has eight swanky cars registered on its address.
The scam unearthed by the Vigilance has raised questions over the functioning of the RLA that has failed to verify whether the documents submitted by people are genuine or not.
