Kathmandu, February 4
For about five months, a driving licence (08-137559) had been lying unclaimed at the Traffic Division of Nepal Police, with no one visiting the division to claim it. A month later, Traffic Police seized a licence having the same number from a person involved in drunk driving. But this person did not visit the division to reclaim his licence.
In course of a month, police got hold of five licences having the same number — 08-137559. On the fifth count, however, the person visited the division to reclaim his licence by paying the fine for drunk driving. This time (December 6, 2015), however, there was no escape for the bearer — Prashant Aryal of Syangja. He had got the licence from Gangaki zone.
Police arrested Aryal and started a probe. They found that Aryal’s modus operandi was simple: Each time he had his licence seized for drunk driving, Aryal would get a copy issued from traffic authorities in Gandaki zone, stating that he had lost his licence. But his trick did not work the fifth time. Aryal got arrested when he reached the division at Baggi Khana to get a copy in place of his ‘lost’ licence. Aryal is not the only driving licence holder, who has managed to hoodwink traffic police repeatedly.
The case of Tal Bahadur Tamang of Rolpa is equally interesting. Tamang had his licence (06-183585) issued from traffic authorities in Bagmati zone. Apparently, Tamang also did not bother to get back his licence, which police had seized for drunk driving. Claiming to have lost his licence, Tamang got a duplicate issued instead. Police seized this copy for drunk driving. He got arrested while he had gone at Baggi Khana to get back the licence.
Some months ago, Chandreshwor Chaudhary of Rautahat got caught during security checking as his driving licence numbered 06-351220 appeared suspicious. Traffic police started a probe as the photo attached on the licence did not match with the licence holder’s face.
In course of the investigation, it came to light that the licence was actually issued in the name of Rakesh Maharjan. During interrogation, Chaudhary confessed that he had found the licence and had not bothered to return it to licence holder Maharjan, thinking that the document can be quite useful for him.
These cases point at rampant forgery of licences and flaws in the licence issuance system.
Jaya Bahadur Chand, DIG at the division, says it’s quite easy to get a copy of the licence as authorities of a zone do not have records of licences issued from other zones.
