Ashish Sharma, a 38-year-old man, was living a life of deception. Posing as an RTO officer, he duped vehicle owners in an online challan scam. His game was simple yet clever: send fake messages to unsuspecting vehicle owners, threatening to cancel their permits unless they paid fines immediately.
But what made Ashish’s scam so convincing? It turned out he had inside help. Working as a private agent at the Ghaziabad RTO, he gained unauthorised access to old vehicle registration files. He then combined this data with information from the e-Vahan app to target his victims. To appear credible, he even used police logos and officers’ photos on his Truecaller profile.
The scam came to light when a complaint was lodged at the Cyber Police Station of Central District. “The complainant stated that he received a phone call from someone posing as an RTO officer from Ghaziabad. The caller claimed there were unpaid challans and warned that the vehicle’s permit would be cancelled if the fine wasn’t settled right away,” DCP (central) M. Harsha Vardhan said. A special team was formed. Using tech surveillance, police traced Sharma’s movements and arrested him in Ghaziabad. “During interrogation, Sharma confessed to the crime stating that he worked at the Ghaziabad RTO, where he got access to registration files,” a senior police officer said. tnn
