Bathinda:
The police today arrested former Bathinda DTO (District Transport Officer) BM Singh for cheating and forgery. He was arrested from his Sector 49-A residence in Chandigarh. He is now DTO, Ropar.
The officer is accused of “selling” nearly 40 VIP vehicle registration numbers, pocketing anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh for each number, during his one-year tenure as DTO, Bathinda.
The estimated money made by the DTO with the help of an office clerk, an agent, a private data operator and a middleman is said to be between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 80 lakh. BM Singh was posted as DTO, Bathinda, from April 2012 to May 2013.
Ravcharan Brar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) said the DTO allegedly allotted old vehicle registration numbers in the series PNB, PUT, PIB, PAW, PCW and PAW for aspirants of small numbers.
He did not give them any acknowledgement slip and pocketed the money on the pretext of levying 6 per cent tax and “other charges.”
The police has already booked clerk Raman Kumar, agent Rajeev Mittal, data operator Baljit Singh and middleman Gagan Teshwar.
Mittal has been arrested. The rest have absconded.The DTO has been sent to a two-day police remand.
Reliable sources in the administration said that his arrest was the outcome of a feud between two leaders of a ruling party.
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