This incident happened with me in Jogeshwari end of JVLR, at the signal below the flyover on western express highway where JVLR starts, on 26th May 2017, a few days back.
I was coming from Bandra and while taking a right turn towards JVLR at the signal below flyover on Western express highway, there were 5 seconds remaining (for the signal to turn orange) and the signal was 'green' for going straight and taking right. A motorbike on my right, a swift dzire tourist car on my left and my car, all 3 of us took the right turn together (while the signal was green and 5 seconds to go). All 3 of us were stopped by the traffic police below the flyover. The person on the motorbike told something to the cop and the cop let him go. There was a lady riding pillion and I don't remember clearly, but I think the guy on the bike was not even wearing a helmet.
Then the cop asked me and the swift dzire tourist car driver to pay a fine for signal jumping. As far as I remember the signal was green for taking a right turn and I have committed no offense. I told the cop that I have not done anything wrong but he insisted that I have jumped signal and asked me to show my license. I did not want to show him my license as I did not do anything wrong but he threatened me that he will book me for driving without a license! I reluctantly showed him my license and co-operated with him. He forcibly handed over a challan to me under 'Offense section no. - 239/177 MVA - signal jumping' for Rs. 200/-. He entered my license no. and mobile no. on his hand held device and handed me a challan print out. There is no instruction on the challan as to how to pay the fine. I was in no mood to ask him and I drove off.
I was quite upset with the entire incident. I decided not to pay the fine straightaway but instead first check their online fine payment website. After reading this thread, I logged in to the RTO website with my car's reg. no. and found that the challan has been uploaded. On viewing the details of the challan, I did not find any CCTV footage or image of the 'so-called' offense, like in many cases there is a clear photo of the offense being committed (like stopping ahead of white line or over-speeding etc.). Instead, there was only 1 image of my car's front bonnet with the number plate which I remember the cop had taken with a camera when he was issuing me a challan. This does not prove that I jumped signal especially when I know I haven't. So obviously there is no video or photo evidence provided to prove I was at fault, if at all, as per the cop's version. I decided to try and contest this challan which was wrongfully handed over to me.
I wrote an email detailing out the entire episode with the challan details to the email address provided in the contact us section on Mumbai RTO website. The email address is
cp.mumbai.jtcp.traf@mahapolice.gov.in. I sent an email yesterday (on 29th May 2017) and I received a response today. The email is in Marathi language. From my limited knowledge of Marathi, what I understand is that Mr. Milind Bharambe, the person to whom I have written has forwarded my email to the concerned department (multimediacell.traffic@mahapolice.gov.in) and asked them to look into this matter and take necessary action. They have done a 'cc' of the email forward to me.
Following is the email forwarded to multimedia cell and cc to me:
सदर अर्जातील विषयाबाबत आपण सक्षम अधिकारी असल्याने सदर अर्ज पुढील आवश्यक कार्यवाहीसाठी आपल्याकडे पाठविण्यात आले आहे.
सदर अर्जावर नियमानुसार आवश्यक कार्यवाही करावी केलेली कार्यवाही अर्जदारास कळविण्यात यावी व केलेल्या कार्यवाहीचा अहवाल
सह पोलिस आयुक्त कार्यालय वाहतुक याना ईमेल द्वारे सादर करावा ही विनंती.
धन्यवाद
सह पोलिस आयुक्त कार्यालय वाहतुक वरळी मुंबई – 400030
Although I am impressed with the prompt response and some action being taken on RTO's behalf and most importantly at least RTO decided to respond to my complaint, I don't think they will waive off the fine for lack of evidence? I will update on this thread further if I hear anything from the RTO. Fingers crossed!