An officer said they checked the footage from a CCTV camera but didn't get a lead (Representational)
Within 24 hours of a car being allegedly stolen from east Delhi, its owner received a challan from traffic police for speeding on NH-10 in the national capital.
The vehicle was paked near a hospital in West Vinod Nagar on the night of August 24 and was found missing the next afternoon. A day later, the owner received a text from traffic police asking him to pay a fine as the vehicle was found breaching the speed limit near Mundka.
His wife, a theatre artist, said she had to park the car on the road near a hospital because of an emergency.
"Unfortunately, I parked the car on the road because there was a family emergency," she said. "I recall parking my vehicle around 9.45 pm and the next day, when I returned to check, it was not there. I then checked impound lots but couldn''t find it. I thought my vehicle was towed away but that was not the case either," she said, requesting anonymity.
She had kept a mobile phone, driving license, debit card, RC document and voter-ID inside the vehicle, according to the FIR filed online on August 25. But in less than 24 hours, her husband received the text message from traffic police informing him about the challan.
The message received around 11.21 am stated, "The car was found speeding at NH-10 Rohtak Road, Bahadurgarh to Mundka on August 26", raising their hopes that police would now be able to trace the vehicle as it was very much on the roads of the national capital.
The FIR, which was registered at Mandawali police station, was transferred to Madhu Vihar police station as the area from where the car was stolen came under it, a police officer said.
"We collected details from the traffic challan but it was not of much help. The picture of the driver was not clear. An anti auto-theft squad team of the district is trying to trace the stolen vehicle. We are also trying to find out the gangs involved to get leads," he added.
An officer investigating the case said they checked the footage from a CCTV camera on the opposite side of the road where the vehicle was parked but did not find any lead.
The owner said, "The car was challaned for speeding but when we checked the photo captured by the camera, neither the registration number of the vehicle appeared clear nor could we identify the driver. But we are trying to trace the vehicle."
In July, the husband of a Delhi court judge received a traffic challan for speeding two months after their car was stolen from their west Delhi residence.
In the same month, a resident of Hari Nagar in West Delhi received a traffic challan more than 20 days after his car was stolen near Vivek Vihar police station in east Delhi.