Duo pulls off con at traffic police chowkie, flee with scooter
The tricksters couldn’t believe their luck – no licence, no papers, no probing questions. In a flash, they revved up the Suzuki Burgman and disappeared into the street-side chaos
MUMBAI: Ever heard of the police lodging a complaint with the police? Well, now you have. Ask the red-faced D N Nagar traffic police and, if they’re not glued to CCTV footage replaying their moment of embarrassment, they might tell you how they got played by two con artists who made off with a scooter, right under their noses.
On August 14, the duo turned up at the D N Nagar traffic chowkie, claiming they’d come to collect a scooter seized for a traffic violation. The police, now wishing they had gone strictly by the rule book, were happy to let them pay the fine online. All they asked for were the scooter’s owner’s name and the vehicle’s identification. The duo claimed they were relatives of the vehicle’s owner, a certain Shabina Khan.
The tricksters couldn’t believe their luck – no licence, no papers, no probing questions. In a flash, they revved up the Suzuki Burgman and disappeared into the street-side chaos.
The scooter indeed belonged to Shabina Khan and had been seized on August 10, when her husband, Anas Khan, was caught riding it with hazy number plates. “Since Anas Khan could not produce the required documents, the traffic police seized the scooter and parked it at the D N Nagar police chowkie,” said a police officer with the D N Nagar police station.
On August 18, Anas Khan arrived, papers in hand, to collect the vehicle, only to learn it had been signed out four days earlier!
Praying for a miracle, the D N Nagar traffic police showed him CCTV footage of the imposters. He didn’t recognise them.
Thus began a frantic hunt for the stolen scooter, the two thieves – and lost pride. On November 3, almost three months after coming up empty handed, the D N Nagar traffic police finally lodged a case of cheating and impersonation with the D N Nagar police.
Safe to say, this time, the traffic cops were the ones taken for a ride.
