Hundreds of seized vehicles lying in police stations; causing nuisance

Nitesh Sangral
JAMMU, Dec 20: There are hundreds and hundreds of vehicles that are lying at the backyards of the different police stations in and around the city for the yeas altogether. Surprisingly, there were no takers of these vehicles and even police was left with no option but to left them in open. It is pertinent to mention here that police used to seize those vehicles which are without valid documents, violating traffic laws, or vehicles intercepted from the thieves or smugglers. Most of the people secure release the release of their vehicles after doing the necessary documentation but despite of that the number of unclaimed vehicles is on rise. Interestingly, police only has the mechanism to catch and seize the vehicles but don’t have any system to preserve the vehicles. The seized vehicles in police stations appear to be condemned vehicles. According to sources, there was no provision to preserve the seized vehicles in the police station. Owing to which vehicles were rusting. Also, it’s a practice of some policemen to fetch spare parts from these vehicles. Often it had been seen that seized vehicles were made condemned by policemen themselves. When contacted, Superintendent of Police (SP) South Rajeshwar Singh said that police seizes vehicle only in two circumstances, that is, if driver of the vehicle fails to produce necessary document on the spot or the vehicle is involved in an accident or any other crime. In both the circumstances, police produce challan in the Court then only the vehicle is released. He, however, clarified that police has no responsibility to preserve the vehicles lying in custody. Owner of the vehicles are themselves responsible for the damage to their vehicles while lying in police stations. He denied that policemen take away spare parts from these vehicles.