The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) will resort to legal action against those who have allegedly unleashed an online campaign to tarnish its image by circulating wrong information on the ongoing enforcement drive against altered vehicles. Criminal cases are likely to be registered against those behind the circulation of fabricated information.
Joint Transport Commissioner (Enforcement) Rajiv Puthalath told The Hindu on Wednesday that the MVD squads had not fined vehicle owners for minor sticker work or decorations on their vehicles. “We focused only on vehicles which were dangerously altered challenging public safety. And, the drive will continue,” he affirmed.
Mr. Puthalath claimed that the anti-MVD campaign was spearheaded by some vehicle-modification companies after a modified vehicle was impounded for serious safety rule violation. “After this incident, there was a lot of defaming propaganda that the enforcement squads were sharing a percentage of the fine charged. We will challenge this by filing a criminal case,” he said.
According to MVD officials, those behind the suspicious campaign against the department were mostly from social media groups on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. A few group members were also found sharing the “fake challan” documents created using fake social media IDs. Incidentally, it has even prompted several owners to remove harmless stickers from their vehicles.
As part of the protest, a new hashtag with a call to “stop MVD attack” had also been created by some groups. There were also legal experts who expressed solidarity with the campaign. Some had even suggested moving the Kerala High Court against the MVD after mobilising crowd funds.
