Traffic cop held for pocketing fines, tampering with records

LUCKNOW: A police constable pocketed over ₹ 63,000 collected in traffic violation fines over a period of three months by altering official records. The anomalies in the records were detected by SSP Lucknow while he was reviewing the traffic lines work here on Wednesday.

Taking a serious note of the matter, senior superintendent of police, Kalanidhi Naithani, immediately got traffic constable Dheeraj Kumar Indrana arrested. Indrana was in-charge of traffic fine collection wing at Sadar traffic lines. An FIR of fraud and tampering with government documents was registered against him at the Cantonment police station.

“The constable has also been placed under suspension and a department inquiry has been initiated against him. The process for terminating his services will also be initiated,” said Naithani.

He said the stern action was aimed at accomplishing the state government’s intent to curb corruption in government departments. Personnel involved in any type of corruption would not be spared, said the SSP.

He said the accused was in-charge of the traffic fine collection wing for the past seven months. “At least 50 similar cases of fraud and tampering with fine receipts have been detected between August 28 and November 15, 2018. Misappropriation of around ₹ 63,100 has been done by him in this period,” said Naithani.

He said the possibility of more such anomalies and the involvement of more traffic personnel in corrupt practices could not be ruled out. “Directions have been issued to cross-check fine receipts of previous months (since the accused constable was posted). Moreover, receipts of previous in-charges will also be checked,” he added.

Naithani said the constable gave receipts of the same amount to commuters for different violations. “Later, he lowered the fine amount in the official document and pocketed the extra money. The fraud was detected after matching the fine receipt copies at the office with their carbon copies,” he said.

“Let’s assume the commuters paid the same ₹2,000 fine under multiple categories of traffic violations. The constable later altered ₹ 2,000 to ₹ 200 by knocking off a zero from the office receipt copy,” explained the SSP.

S-I SUSPENDED, FIR AGAINST PRD JAWAN

A sub-inspector (SI) Amit Kumar Tewari, in-charge of Dubagga police outpost, was suspended by SSP Kalanidhi Naithani. The move came after a viral video showed a man in Khaki police uniform collecting money from commercial vehicles passing from Dubbaga crossing in Kakori here on Tuesday. The SSP said Tewari was suspended as he was responsible for the extortion going on within his jurisdiction area. In the initial probe, the man collecting money was identified as Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD) jawan Raj Kumar who was posted at the outpost. An FIR of extortion under IPC section 384 was registered against him at the Kakori police station.