Touts held, RTA officials booked for running extortion racket

The Chief Minister’s Flying Squad arrested three suspected touts on Wednesday for allegedly running a racket to extort money for issuing various certificates and permits for newly purchased vehicles, squad officials said on Wednesday, adding that three others -- a transport department inspector, a sub-inspector (SI), and another suspected tout -- were booked for being a part of the racket.

According to them, the inspector is posted with the regional transport authority (RTA), which deals with commercial vehicles, while the SI is assigned to the district transport office (DTO), which handles documentation of private vehicles.

Squad officials said the arrested touts, identified as Gaurav Kumar, Saubhan Singh, and Suresh Kumar, had with them 21 official files related to applications for issuance of registration certificates (RC), no-objection certificates, clearance certificates, vehicle permits, and documents issued for vehicle owners, besides ₹40,500 in cash.

The trio worked as agents for various automobile showrooms to obtain RCs and other documents from RTA and DTO and thus came into contact with transport officials, who allegedly directed them to collect money from other agents.

A list of names and contact numbers was also seized from the arrested touts, from whom they were supposed to collect money to give to the inspector.

During questioning, the suspects said the inspector gave them these 21 files asking them to collect money from the agents working for various showrooms and transporters who had submitted documents for getting RCs and other related documents for newly purchased vehicles.

According to officials, Gaurav Kumar, the main tout, admitted to the squad officials that he had collected ₹7 lakh in instalments from the agents between August 28 and September 11 and given it to the inspector.

He also admitted that he was tasked with collecting ₹36.63 lakh from various agents mentioned on the list and 21 files were handed to him, which should not have left the RTA office at any cost.

According to flying squad officials, 10 more files related to permits issued from DTO were seized from Singh after his arrest.

They said while Gaurav Kumar was communicating with the inspector and a woman computer operator at the RTA, Singh and Suresh Kumar were in touch with the SI assigned to the DTO.

Inspector Dharambir Singh of the CM’s flying squad said Gaurav Kumar was tasked with collecting ₹1,500 for every RC of a commercial vehicle with a local address and ₹2,900 for RCs with an address outside Gurugram.

“Gaurav Kumar said the inspector used to pay him ₹3,000 per week for doing the job. Every day, he would get lists of names and contact information to collect money,” he said.

The three touts were taken on a three-day police remand for interrogation on Thursday, said inspector Krishan Kumar, station house officer of Shivaji Nagar police station. “Assistant commissioner of police Mukesh Kumar will investigate the case because the Prevention of Corruption Act has been invoked in it,” he said.

Based on flying squad inspector Singh’s complaint, a first information report was registered against the touts and the two officials under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 166 (public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 7, 8, 12, and 13 The PC Act at Shivaji Nagar police station on Wednesday night.