Uttar Pradesh: Man held in Ghaziabad for posing as RTO officer

A 38-year-old man from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested by Delhi Police on Sunday for posing as a Regional Transport Office (RTO) officer and tricking unwary car owners in an online challan scam. According to him, the defendant, Ashish Sharma, called victims claiming that they had outstanding challans on their commercial vehicles while posing as an RTO officer.

"Using vehicle registration details, he threatened that their permits would be cancelled if fines were not paid immediately," said the police officer. In this case, the complainant was forced to pay a challan fine of ₹12,500 online. Later, when he discovered the deception, he complained to the police.

Call logs and financial transactions were utilized to track down the accused. During questioning, Sharma admitted that he had previously been a private agent at the Ghaziabad RTO office, where he had access to outdated car registration paperwork kept in unprotected locations, according to the police.