The Jubilee Hills Police in Hyderabad on Monday arrested a 40-year-old doctor who was arrested for drink driving on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, and was later found to have installed a mechanism in his BMW to change its number plates by pressing a button, police said on Monday.
Jubilee Hills police inspector U Srinivasulu Reddy told HT that the doctor, identified as Gautham Reddy, a resident of Gandhi Nagar area, was later released on bail at the station after receiving a notice, asking him to appear for questioning on demand.
“We have booked a case under Section 318 (cheating) and Section 319 (impersonation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, as well as drunk driving,” the inspector said.
He said Reddy was arrested by the traffic police during a routine drink-driving check at the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank in Jubilee Hills area. He said: “The police intercepted his BMW car and conducted a breath analysis test on him. His blood alcohol level (BAC) was recorded at 137 mg/dL, against the permissible limit of 30 mg/dL.”
During the examination, the police noticed that the front number plate of the car bore registration number DL6CM 7097, which is a Delhi registration number, but the rear number plate displayed TS9FQ 9999, which is a Telangana registration number.
“The police insisted Reddy to produce the vehicle’s registration documents but he was unable to produce them. They conducted a thorough examination of the vehicle and found that he had installed a mechanism in the vehicle, controlled by a button located next to the steering wheel, that allows number plates to be switched automatically,” the inspector said.
When questioned, the doctor claimed he installed it “just for fun”, but police suspected he may have been using the technology to evade traffic fines.
“We have seized the car and registered a case against him and initiated an investigation. The investigation revealed that the car was originally registered in Delhi, while the number plate bearing Telangana registration belongs to another car belonging to his family,” Srinivasulu Reddy said, adding that there are no cases or calls pending against the seized car and further investigations are underway.
