Car driver gets 54 traffic challans for ‘not wearing helmet’

CHENNAI: In a veritable comedy of errors of sorts, a car owner in Adyar received as many as 54 challans for driving his brand new car ‘without wearing helmet’.

Sanjay Kumar, an IT faculty member of a well-known education institution, who recently purchased a new car, was shocked to receive 54 challans from Chennai traffic police for the same ‘offence he committed in a single day’.

“How can a car owner who just registered the vehicle one month back be issued challans for not wearing a helmet?” he asked. A look at the challans shows that the 54 have been issued on the same date and time. He is still trying to find out about his traffic offence he allegedly committed.

Interestingly, the Chennai traffic police said Kumar was not wearing a ‘helmet’ when he was travelling in the vehicle with registration number – TN 07 DA 9831-, which of course is a car! A look at the details of the challans shows that all were issued on October 19 this year and issued by the same traffic officer named Pandivelu attached to the Vepery station. All challans are booked under the provisions of 129 of the MV Act which applies when a person not wearing protective headgear or helmet while riding or driving a motorcycle or scooter and he is liable to pay the penalty.

Kumar, meanwhile, has requested the Chennai police to look into the matter and take necessary action against persons concerned. “This will serve as a lesson and create a good name for the Traffic Department, ” he noted. When contacted, a senior Chennai city traffic police officer said that the issue is being looked into. It could be a technical error in the ANPR camera.“In this particular case all the challans issued against the owner of the car will be cancelled, ” the officer added.