Bengaluru: The Koramangala police have arrested two men for issuing permits to autorikshaws by forging Shantinagar Regional Transport Officer’s signature.
The accused are identified as Iliyas Pasha (31) of Padarayana Pura, and K Anand (28) of Shiva Reddy Layout.
Fake seals and permit documents have been seized from the accused. Both the accused have studied only till SSLC.
Pasha, who is basically from Kolar, befriended Anand, who owned a Xerox shop in Koramangala’s BDA complex. The duo got into illegal activities of issuing fake permits to make easy money.
Initially, permits to autorikshaws were issued in the Regional Transport Offices (RTO) of Koramangala, Jayanagar, Rajajinagar, Indiranagar, Yeshwanthpura, Yalahanka, K R Puram, Electronic City and Jnanabharathi. But due to increase in the number of autorikshaws in the city, an exclusive RTO to issue permits to autos was opened on December 1, 2011. Since then any documentation related to autorikshaws are done in the new RTO.
According to police sources, Pasha, taking advantage of the situation, took coloured photo copies of the old permit documents, typed name and registered vehicle number in the papers, and issued them to the autorikshaw owners in exchange for Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
Retired Regional Transport Officer of Shanthinagar K P Gangadhar Acharya, on sensing fraud in the documentations of the RTO, had filed a complaint in the Koramangala police station in September to take action against the culprits issuing fake permits.
