Fancy No. auction under the scanner

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune news service
Chandigarh, December 9

The cyber crime cell of the police has started investigation into the auction of 0009 fancy number of the vehicle number series, CH01-BY, which fetched Rs 16.03 lakh at the e-auction held on September 21.

The investigation began after the Registration and the Licensing Authority (RLA) referred the matter to the police sensing nexus in the auction with the intention to cause loss to the public exchequer.

The amount is highest for any fancy number the Registration and the Licensing Authority has sold so far. While 0009 number fetched Rs 16.03 lakh, the most sought-after number, 0001, fetched only Rs 1 lakh.

Dilli Bahadur Basnet, a businessman who bought 0009 number, made bids for 0001 and 0009 numbers and quoted Rs 15 lakh for both numbers at the beginning of the auction. The online auction continued for two days. Due to huge bid amount for both numbers, not many persons participated in the bidding process of 0001 number. Later, Basnet opted for 0009 and raised the price up to Rs 16.03 lakh.

According to the terms and conditions of the auction, same person is not allowed to retain two numbers even after bidding successfully. Therefore, 0001 number was given to the second-highest bidder, Preet Machine Limited, which quoted Rs 1 lakh before Basnet quoted Rs 15 lakh. Later, Basnet never came to deposit the amount for 0009 number. Sensing something fishy, the RLA has not allotted 0001 to the person who bought it and provisionally cancelled it till the investigation is complete. An Registration and the Licensing Authority official said 0001 number would not be allotted till the investigation was complete.