Rahil Mehta, a diamond trader residing at Malabar Hill and the owner of a Honda Accord and a BMW 3-Series seemed unaware that he had crossed speed limits a total of 103 times. He had collected 103 e-challans, all of which he was unaware of. Each of these speeding instances occurred at the Bandra Worli Sealink.
Mehta had been e-challaned a total of 84 times while speeding in his Honda Accord and 19 times while driving his BMW 3-Series well over the prescribed speed limit. All these occurred during the 8 month period from January to August 2018. These fines had remained unpaid over the past 8 months.
On 23rd September, his Honda Accord was spotted in a parking violation at Mumbai’s Crawford Market. The number plate of this Accord was run through the police data base by traffic constable on duty Sunil Patil. It was then that fines to the extent of Rs 85,000 were noted. The Honda Accord was seized and Mehta was been instructed to pay up the dues. Further investigation revealed that Mehta also owned a BMW 3-Series for which he owed INR 19,000 in fines.
Mehta asserted that he was unaware of these offences and that he never received any text messages. However, he immediately visited the Police head quarters at Worli on September 25, 2018, and paid off his fines, each of which were for speeding.
Mehta is not the only such speedster in Mumbai to have amassed such a large amount in traffic violations. The Police Department has started collection of unpaid traffic fines of INR 103 crores and some of these offenders include Bollywood superstars, politicians and businessmen.
It should also be mentioned here that Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis has also been issued fines of Rs 13,000 for speeding a total of 13 times in the past few months. However, it was later put down to a clerical error as the Chief Minister’s official cars have been exempted from speed limits.
