Seized vehicles to be disposed of

Hyderabad: In a move that will clean the surroundings of many a police stations in and around the city that now resemble ‘ghost towns’ with damaged and untidy seized vehicles scattering around, the city police has finally decided to dispose of some 15,000-odd vehicles. The auction will begin after completing the judicial process of conducting ‘panchanama’.

Apparently finding no place to park all the seized vehicles, and whatever available space being already crammed, the police have now decided to take the permission from the court to auction them.

A committee recently formed under the supervision of the Hyderabad Commissioner M Mahendar Reddy will dispose the vehicles lying in police stations by the end of October. In the past, there were complaints that in some cases, the police had auctioned seized vehicles pertaining to cases where people were acquitted.

To avoid such problems, the Police Department wants to categorise the vehicles under seven sections such as vehicles involved in cases where culprits are convicted, acquitted, cases where mutual compromise had taken place, cases under investigation, cases pending trial, vehicles of other departments and unclaimed vehicles.

The police officials will now verify the judgement copies and then decide upon which of the vehicles need to be auctioned. In case of vehicles pertaining to cases under investigation and pending trials, the vehicles will be sent for safe custody of the accused. The registration certificate of the vehicle will be kept in the custody of the court but the owner will be asked to present the vehicle before the court whenever it is required, according to G Pala Raju, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Station Detective Department.

Under the proposed system, the police will produce the vehicle before the judge and after Punchanama, it will be handed over to the claimant. While on the other hand, the vehicles of other departments seized by the police for offenses like rice smuggling or under Excise Act or Forest Act, will be handed over to the respective departments. “Since these departments have large premises to park these vehicles, they would be handed over to them after due process,” he said.

The vehicles that remain unclaimed at the police stations for more than six months will be auctioned under Sections 102 CrPC. The Commissionerate would send proposals for auctions to Road Transport Authority, as it fixed the price of vehicles, the officer said.

This will be the first auction after a major fire accident at Goshamahal police stadium where 100 two-wheelers, 20 four-wheelers and 33 auto-rickshaws were gutted in January 2012.