Delhi Police files case over suspicious vehicle with fake Punjab govt number plate

Delhi Police registered a case after a vehicle labelled "Punjab government" was on Wednesday intercepted with cash, liquor and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) pamphlets, an official said.

The vehicle bearing a Punjab number plate was caught by the Flying Squad team in the New Delhi district, the official said. The Flying Squad attends to all Model Code of Conduct violations and all complaints related to liquor, arms and cash used for elections.

The Punjab government dismissed claims that it owned the car intercepted in Delhi. The vehicle's number plate was forged and fake as it can be tracked to a different car not owned by the Punjab government, it said. The AAP, too, released a statement, saying the car seizure was a "planted stunt, ?poorly executed and utterly bogus".

Delhi Police said officials have initiated legal proceedings in the matter, and a case is being registered at Tilak Marg police station.

"Upon searching (the car), we discovered cash, multiple liquor bottles, and Aam Aadmi Party pamphlets inside the vehicle," Delhi Police said in a statement.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, in a statement, expressed shock over the incident. He said Rs 10 lakh cash, liquor and AAP election material was recovered from a Punjab government car in Delhi.

"Till now, we thought Arvind Kejriwal institutionalised corruption in Delhi government, polluted Yamuna and Delhi's air but today we understand that he has polluted Delhi's political system too," Sachdeva said.

Sachdeva said he doesn't remember a single incident of recovery of such a huge amount of cash and liquor in 35 years of public life.

In a statement, the Punjab government said the department of transport received information that a vehicle bearing Punjab's registration number 'PB35AE1342' was intercepted in Delhi carrying illegal liquor and some unaccounted cash.

The statement said as per official record, it has been found that the vehicle was registered in the name of a man posted in the Army Dental College in Pathankot three years back, and that he was a permanent resident of Khadki in Maharashtra.

The vehicle with registration number 'PB35AE1342' is a 'Ford Eco Sport' model of 2018 but the four-wheeler intercepted by Delhi Police is a 'Hyundai Creta', said the statement.

This confirms that the vehicle number plate is forged and fake, it said.

The High Security Registration Plate is mandatory for all vehicles but the registration plate of the seized vehicle is an ordinary one, without the features of HSRP, it said.

"We have searched our records and found that no such vehicle is owned or hired by the government of Punjab. The intercepted vehicle does not belong to the government of Punjab at all," it said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the matter was "totally fake and laughable".

In a statement, the party said the vehicle plate number belongs to a Hyundai Creta, a different car from the one seized by police.

The party said there is no entry record of the vehicle at Punjab Bhawan. "Conveniently (it was) parked with no driver in sight. Owner details trace back to someone from Pathankot, now in Punjabi Bagh, but originally from Pune. A planted stunt'? poorly executed and utterly bogus," it said.

(Except for the headline, nothing has been changed by AINN in the PTI.)