Motorist With 58 Cases Uses Fake Number Plate, Lands In Soup

An assistant at a doctor’s clinic had the habit of riding his Bullet bike without a helmet and jumping traffic signals. With 58 cases pending against him, he tried to avoid getting caught by fixing a fake number plate to his bike. But his tactic boomeranged. The 31-year-old is now cooling his heels at Bengaluru Central Prison, and is facing charges for cheating too. The accused is Mari Gowda from Vijayanandanagar. On Friday morning, Gowda, who works at a clinic in Seshadripuram, was riding without a helmet when police stopped his bike near Coolinagar bridge in Nandini Layout. Cops noticed the two different number plates fixed on it. Inspection of documents and chassis number confirmed the front number plate (KA-05-JS-7536) was the original one, while that on the rear portion (KA-05-JS-7538) was fake.
Police also found that Gowda was caught on cameras of different junctions in the city for offences many a time. In all, there were 58 pending cases with a penalty of Rs 29,000. While there were 39 pending cases (Rs 19,500) registered against the registration number in the front, 19 cases (Rs 9,500) were due for the other one.
Rajajinagar traffic police filed a complaint with Nandini Layout police against Gowda under IPC sections 417 (cheating) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property). Pending fines, including the Friday’s violation of riding without helmet, are yet to be paid by the accused. Gowda told police that he altered the rear plate number to avoid fines. “His ruse of altering the number plate landed him in more trouble. If he didn’t alter the plate, he was to pay the fine and walk free. Now, he is in 14-day judicial custody,” an officer said.