The Police Department, in its zeal to ensure 100% compliance of the helmet rule, seems to have committed a faux pas after a car driver was issued a challan for driving his vehicle without wearing a helmet.
R. Umamaheswara Rao of Tirupati however is not amused.
Mr. Rao said he was surprised to see an SMS from the Srikalahasti traffic police directing him to pay an e-challan of ₹135 by March 1 against his car bearing registration number AP03-BZ-7345. The reason cited was failure to wear helmet.
The e-challan was however withdrawn subsequently after the department came under fire for its alleged ‘casual approach’ when it came to wrongly penalising road users.
When contacted by The Hindu , Deputy Superintendent of Police (Srikalahasti) P. Ramakrishna clarified that it was due to a typo made by his field staff due to which the department ended up penalising the wrong person.
Caught on the wrong foot, the department later correctly identified the ‘actual violator’, a motorcyclist, and slapped the fine on him.
