A Toyota Fortuner cruising through the roads of Maharashtra has triggered questions online after a bizarre modification appeared to give its number plate a disappearing act.
A Toyota Fortuner cruising through the roads of Maharashtra has triggered questions online after a bizarre modification appeared to give its number plate a disappearing act. In a video circulating on social media, the SUV can be seen travelling normally before a black cover slides down and completely conceals its registration plate. The mechanism appears to allow the number plate to be hidden at the push of a button, raising serious questions about how such a vehicle could operate openly on the road.
The SUV’s challan history reportedly revealed an astonishing 55 traffic violations, with the accumulated fines totalling around Rs 1 lakh.
In another post on X, user Nachiket Deshpande shared the vehicle’s challan history, drawing further attention to its repeated traffic offences.
Related Articles
According to the RTO (Regional Transport Office) information platform CarInfo record shared in the post, 50 of the 55 challans were linked to overspeeding. Nearly all of these violations carried a fine of Rs 2,000 each, pushing the total penalty to around Rs 1 lakh.
The record also listed a driver seat-belt violation carrying a Rs 1,000 fine, a passenger seat-belt violation attracting another Rs 1,000 penalty, and an offence involving an improperly displayed or painted registration mark, which also carried a Rs 1,000 fine.
Nachiket criticised the apparent lack of stringent enforcement and questioned why a vehicle with such a substantial history of violations had not faced stronger action. He also highlighted concerns that a concealed registration plate could make the SUV difficult to identify if it were involved in another offence.
The viral post went viral and social media users argued that authorities should investigate the vendor who installed the number-plate-hiding mechanism, stressing that penalising the vehicle owner alone would not be sufficient.
