The Shahimudra Pratisthan, an NGO in Nashik, has claimed that commercial vehicle owners in cahoots with agents at Regional Transport Offices (RTO) use fake third-party insurance policy for getting fitness certificates for their vehicles in the State.
President of the NGO Rahul Jain-Bagmar, addressing the media on Monday, alleged that RTO officials issue fitness certificates to vehicles without verifying the policy documents. The RTO agents create a fake policy for ₹3,500 while a real third-party insurance for a commercial vehicle costs over ₹30,000. There is a possibility that even some RTO officials are involved in the racket, he said.
Jain-Bagmar said that when his NGO investigated the matter and wrote to two national insurance companies, enquiring about the policies on which fitness certificates were issued, the companies replied that they did not have the details of those policies in the company records. One of the companies has written to the police authorities in Nashik that they have reasonable suspicion that policies are fake.
He also claimed that this kind of scam is not only just happening in Nashik RTO but also at other RTOs across the State. According to him, the scam could easily touch ₹2,000 crore. State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote has been apprised of the situation and the Minister has promised a probe into the matter, Jain-Bagmar said.
He added that the RTO officials could verify the policy by scanning the QR code on the policy document but it was not being done.