Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 9 (PTI) The departmental probe into the recent suicide of a 33-year-old autorickshaw driver in Keralam’s Malappuram district has found no evidence to substantiate allegations that he was denied a fitness certificate for failing to pay a bribe, officials said on Wednesday.
The preliminary report, submitted by Transport Secretary T V Anupama to Transport Minister C P John, also found no evidence that the concerned Assistant Motor Vehicles Inspector deliberately rejected the application with any vested interest.
The driver, Shoukath Ali, a native of Kizhisseri in Malappuram, had allegedly died by suicide after posting on Facebook that the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) had denied a fitness certificate for his autorickshaw. His recent death had triggered protests against the department.
According to the report, Ali’s vehicle had three illegal modifications and the inspecting officer, N Prem Kumar, had directed him to rectify the defects and bring the vehicle back for inspection.
However, the officer failed to follow the prescribed procedure for rejecting the application and did not record the rejection in the relevant Certificate of Fitness Rejection Report (CFRR) form and provide it to the applicant, the report said.
A show-cause notice would be issued to Kumar for the procedural lapses, the statement said, adding that the minister has directed the transport secretary to seek his explanation within 15 days and take further action based on his response.
The report said the allegation that the fitness certificate was denied because Ali did not pay a bribe or approach officials through agents could not be established.
It also found no evidence that the AMVI had intentionally tried to reject the application with any vested interest, the government statement said.
The report recommended several measures to make vehicle inspections more transparent, including shifting the entire process to a digital system and eliminating manual registers.
Each inspection should be assigned a unique digital inspection ID and conducted through the officer’s login. A digital checklist should record defects, while photographs and videos of the vehicle’s condition should be uploaded and digitally authenticated, it said.
The pass, failure or requirement for reinspection should also be recorded online, with details communicated to applicants through SMS, WhatsApp or online notifications.
The report further recommended providing digitally generated CFRR documents to applicants, fixing reinspection dates online and displaying previously identified defects when the vehicle is brought back for inspection.
QR-code-based tracking, stricter regulation of intermediaries and strengthening of the department’s internal vigilance wing were also recommended.
The minister said special directions would be issued to all Regional Transport Offices and Sub-Regional Transport Offices in this regard.
The minister also directed the department to prepare a time-bound action plan for the proposed reforms and report its progress at meetings of the Transport Management Committee, the statement added. PTI LGK KH
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