Man held for running illegal pay-and-park facility in Colaba

29 January,2018 10:40 AM IST |  Mumbai  |  Suraj Ojha

He was caught after a businessman filed a complaint saying that the accused charged him for the facility near Radio Club, even though it was for free



Accused Mohit Chaurasiya alias Sonu

After a businessman filed a complaint with the Colaba police on Saturday that a person charged him for parking his car near Radio Club, the cops arrested the culprit for allegedly running the illegal pay-and-park facility in the area. Investigation revealed that the 27-year-old accused, Mohit Chaurasiya alias Sonu, was in touch with a parking contractor, who had been blacklisted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Soon after the complaint was filed against Sonu, the cops sent two officials from the detection and ATC teams to the spot to check. The officials, who were in plain clothes, spotted the accused talking to a car driver and writing down something on a piece of paper.

Used receipts
One of the officials said, "When we started walking towards him, he quickly put the papers in his pocket. On being questioned, he admitted to collecting parking fees, though the facility was free in the area. After we took him to the police station and conducted a personal check, we found half-torn receipts of MCGM pay-and-park." When the cops questioned the driver with whom Sonu was talking, he said that the accused asked him to pay Rs 100 as parking fee and was about to give a receipt for it.

During interrogation, Sonu said that he collected the receipts from different parking spots, after they were used and thrown away, and started his own pay-and-park facility without the permission of the authority concerned.

Accused tries to avoid arrest
Speaking to mid-day, one of the officers said, "When we were in the process of registering an FIR in the matter, he suddenly banged his head on the wall in order to avoid arrest. As his head started bleeding, we immediately rushed him to a hospital. He was arrested following his treatment." An FIR has been registered against him under sections 420, 465, 467 and 471 of IPC. He was arrested on Sunday and produced before a court, which sent him to police custody. Sources said that earlier the cops had caught him committing the same crime and given a warning, but unfortunately, that didn't help.

However, the accused's lawyer Sunil Pandey said in court, "My client has been falsely implicated in the case. There was a heated argument between the complainant and him over parking and hence the former filed a complaint."

Rs 100 Amount the accused was caught collecting from a car driver

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