Traffic violations in Pune have reached alarming levels. While signal jumping and helmetless riding remain common offences, a disturbing new trend is emerging — bikers deliberately riding without number plates, apparently to evade identification and avoid e-challans from traffic police.
Nachiket Deshpande, one of the vigilant Punekars who takes to X (formerly Twitter) to report the incidents of traffic violations to the police, shared a video of a youth riding a bike without a number plate. He wrote, "No number plate either rear or front, plenty of unauthorised modifications to the vehicle. Of course, no helmet. Dear @CPPuneCity @PuneCityTraffic, there are 1000s of such unidentifiable vehicles gracing Pune roads. What if such vehicles are used in terror activities?"
Commenting on his post, netizens said they have also observed this growing trend. A user wrote, "I've observed this change recently. There are indeed many vehicles roaming without a number plate. They are probably criminals trying to hide from the authorities." "This is a very common scenario in Kondhwa. I always wonder why people do this. What is the intention behind removing the number plates???" another user asked. "We need a smart and active police force," a third user emphasised.
Meanwhile, speaking to The Free Press Journal, Deshpande stated he spots such vehicles every day. "A few days ago, it was a Jaguar without a plate," he said. "We saw a horrific terror attack just two days ago. Vehicles without registration plates or even those with fancy plates cannot be identified by cameras. There's a high probability that the act of using fancy plates/no plates is a precursor to using the vehicle for some crime, be it chain snatching, hit and run, or even terror activities. That's the reason these people don't want to have their vehicles identified. It's a much more serious offence than it seems to be," he added.
