Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy suspends senior motor vehicle inspector over illegal fitness certificates

BENGALURU: Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy has suspended Nisar Ahmed, a Senior Motor Vehicle Inspector, for dereliction of duty in issuing Fitness Certificates to vehicles of the state of Gujarat illegally. The suspension order was issued by the Commissioner of the Transport Department.

Officials said that the e-detection team of the Gujarat State Transport Office checked data on the vehicle e-detection portal and found discrepancies involving 41 vehicles. These vehicles were shown as inspected at RTO offices in Karnataka and issued Form-38(A) (Fitness Certificate), after which they passed through toll plazas in Gujarat on the same day.

Officials said the approvals were made by Nisar Ahmed, Deputy Director at the Transport Commissioner’s Office, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. As soon as the matter came to the attention of the minister, the Department officials were ordered to take immediate action. Accordingly, the Joint Transport Commissioner, Bengaluru City Division, was asked to submit a detailed report.

The report revealed that Nisar Ahmed, Senior Motor Vehicle Inspector at the Regional Transport Officer’s Office, Bengaluru (Central), had renewed the fitness certificates for the vehicles in Form-38(A). Verification through the Department of Transport 4.0 software further confirmed that all 41 vehicles had passed through toll plazas in Gujarat on the very date they were reportedly inspected.

From this, officials concluded that Form-38(A) was approved illegally without any physical inspection of the vehicles. The act was found to be in violation of the Motor Vehicles Act and Rules and amounted to dereliction of duty. In view of these findings, the Commissioner stated in his order that Nisar Ahmed has been suspended from service. (ANI)