DGP has a fake number plate on his official vehicle, says Meghalaya ex-Asst IGP

The vehicle used by DGP LR Bishnoi uses a registration number that, according to transport department database, is allocated to a Hyundai Verna

SHILLONG: A suspended Meghalaya police officer on Thursday accused director general of police (DGP) Lajja Ram Bishnoi of using a fake number plate on the multi-utility van that he had been using as his official vehicle.

GK Langrai, a 2004 batch Meghalaya Police Service officer, who is under suspension in connection with alleged misappropriation of funds, filed the police complaint against the DGP with the Sadar police station on Thursday.

There was no formal word from the state police on registering the first information report (FIR) days before Bishnoi is scheduled to step down on expiry of his two-year term on May 19.

Langrai said the DGP had been using a KIA Carnival Limousine with a registration number, ML-02-A-0001, as his official vehicle.

But this registration number, according to the transport department’s response to a right to information request on July 27, 2023, was allotted to a Hyundai Verna 1.6 VTVT registered in the name of the Director General of Police, Government of Meghalaya. This is a fraud, he said.

Bishnoi brushed off the allegations, saying he was open to a fair and free investigation and claimed that the number was changed due to security reasons. “You see, sometimes that is done to not attract miscreants from attacking the vehicle for selfish reasons… But suffice to say that the law will take its own course of action if any wrong has been committed,” he told HT. Bishnoi did not explain how it helped.

Langrai also said that the Meghalaya DGP was entitled to use an official vehicle costing a maximum of ₹12 lakh but the vehicle that he used was much more expensive.

“All these facts stated above point out only to the Offence of Criminal Conspiracy and Criminal Breach of Trust as well as Forgery and cheating committed by Lajja Ram Bishnoi. I, therefore, request you to register the case against the accused persons mentioned above under appropriate section of law and prosecute him accordingly to ensure that he is punished for the same,” he stated in the police complaint.

To be sure, Langrai was arrested on November 2, 2022 for allegedly misappropriating funds sanctioned for the construction of the Nationwide Emergency Response System (NERS) building in Shillong. He was granted bail in all the six cases that he was facing on March 31, 2023.

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