Don’t be surprised if you end up receiving a challan from the traffic police even if you have not committed any offence. A number of cases where motorists have been served wrong challans have come to light, where the registration number may be slightly different from that of the real offenders. In addition, the Facebook page of the traffic police is flooded with requests for photographs of the vehicles to ascertain if the challans have been sent to the right owner.
Mohd. Rasheed Uddin was taken aback to receive a challan a few days ago when he could not recall jumping the red signal at all. A careful study showed that he had been wrongfully arraigned when it was actually another vehicle at fault. The challan notice was for his vehicle numbered (AP09AT18) but the accompanying photograph showed that the offence was registered against a similar number (AP29AT18) with a few digits being different.
Many motorists make frequent requests for photographs, asking for their offence to be posted on the traffic police’s Facebook page which finds the public complaining of wrong challans. One motorist, Rashi V, who was served a challan for an offence committed by somebody else, could get it corrected by getting in touch with the police.