While a disturbing new trend of deliberately driving without number plates, apparently to evade identification and avoid e-challans from traffic police, is seen in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, a Reddit user recently shared a picture of a Pimpri-Chinchwad Police vehicle plying without a number plate.
"Yesterday, we saw two police patrol cars, and one of them didn’t have a number plate. It seems like even they are becoming like the people driving Thars and Fortuners without number plates in PCMC," wrote the Redditor.
Meanwhile, Reddit users had a field day after the post went viral. "They're on a secret mission," a user joked. "Undercover police," commented another user. "Can't you see 'POLICE' written in capital letters and a red light on top of the car, and yet you are asking for a number plate? Come on man... number plate is for peasants like us," a third user remarked sarcastically. "Report to the police... Oh wait," a fourth user quipped humorously.
Earlier, Nachiket Deshpande, one of the vigilant Punekars who takes to X (formerly Twitter) to report the incidents of traffic violations to the police, speaking to The Free Press Journal, stated he spots vehicles without number plates every day. "A few days ago, it was a Jaguar without a plate," he said. "Vehicles without registration plates or even those with fancy plates cannot be identified by cameras. There's a high probability that the act of using fancy plates/no plates is a precursor to using the vehicle for some crime, be it chain snatching, hit and run, or even terror activities. That's the reason these people don't want to have their vehicles identified. It's a much more serious offence than it seems to be," he added.
