Bikram Kumar Saha, a general physician based in Malda, was flummoxed when he received a challan from the state transport department for allegedly violating the parking rules somewhere in Myanmar, a country that he had not visited so far.
The challan, which intrigued the doctor, made him share his surprise on social media. Soon, the post went viral, and people raised questions with the district police and the transport department.
Officials of the traffic wing of the police and the department have taken note of it and have initiated a probe.
Saha said on July 30, he received a notification on his cell phone that a fine had been imposed upon me for violating the parking rules in the Englishbazar area and paid off the penalty.
“Soon, another notification came, and I was surprised to see that another challan had been generated for the same reason. Initially, I thought it was my driver's fault, but later learnt that my car was at the garage of my residence at the time that was mentioned in the challan,” said Saha.
What baffled him further was the spot that was mentioned in it.
"It was printed in the challan that my car was fined as it was parked at Aamaimae Lam, Myanmar (Burma)," the doctor added.
Officials of the transport department and the police, too, sounded clueless about it.
"It seems that the challan was issued by the traffic police," said Anupam Chakraborty, the regional transport officer of Malda.
Mangesh Subba, the deputy superintendent of police (traffic), said they are looking into the issue.
Debabrata Chakraborty, the inspector-in-charge of the traffic wing, however, claimed that there might be a “technical glitch.”
“The challan appears to be original and not a fake. It seems there was a technical glitch, which is why the wrong location was mentioned, which led to the confusion. We are working on it and have also spoken with the concerned car owner,” he said.