Man fined Rs 1,000 for driving car without a helmet in bizarre Noida traffic police blunder

The challan was issued to the Rampur resident on November 9, 2023. (Representational)

In a baffling incident from Uttar Pradesh, a resident of Rampur found himself at the receiving end of an unusual traffic violation when he was fined Rs 1,000 by the Noida police for allegedly driving his car without a helmet in the city. The fine left Tushar Saxena bewildered who insists he has never set foot (or his car) in the district of Gautam Buddh Nagar, where the alleged violation occurred.

Saxena first received a text message informing him of the fine last year, which he initially dismissed as a mistake. However, when a follow-up email and another message arrived, the gravity of the situation became apparent.

"The challan was issued on November 9, 2023. If you are violating traffic rules, then it is common to receive a fine, but that is not my case. I have never driven my car to the NCR area. And if there's any rule that says we have to wear a helmet inside a car, then the authorities must give this to me in writing," Saxena, who lives 200km from Noida, told NDTV.

The car, purchased in March of last year, had its registration transferred from Ghaziabad to Rampur. Despite this, Saxena is now entangled in a bureaucratic nightmare, appealing to Noida's traffic police to investigate the matter and revoke the erroneous fine.

This incident isn't an isolated one. In a similar case from Jhansi, a man was fined Rs 1,000 by the local traffic police for not wearing a helmet while driving his Audi. When Parihar approached the traffic police for an explanation, he was told that the matter would be looked into only after the ongoing Lok Sabha election was over. To avoid further fines, Parihar humorously resorted to wearing a bike helmet while driving his car till the matter was resolved.