The Regional Transport Office (RTO) authorities were in a shock when they found the documents that suggested that a woman, who died one and a half years ago, had sold her vehicle and transferred the ownership to a person from Proddatur on July 24 (last Saturday).
The woman died on November 26, 2019. The documents suggested that the vehicle was up for sale by a finance company since September 13, 2019 and the new registration certificate (RC) was generated on July 14. The finance company had issued a letter of permission and recommended the transfer of ownership.
According to the officials, all such transactions can be done only with the original owner putting his or her thumb impression as the vehicle registration certificates are linked with the Aadhaar card from which the biometric information is obtained. However, the records suggest that the transfer of ownership of the vehicle was done by the woman herself on July 24.
Deputy Transport Commissioner N. Sivaram Prasad told The Hindu that the transfer of ownership or sale of vehicle can be done only by the legal heirs by producing the death certificate of the original owner, legal heir certificate, and a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the financier.
As per the law, the vehicle is transferred in the name of the legal heir, who then can transfer the ownership to the new buyer.
Probe under way
“All these transactions can happen only with the biometric information of the owner, whose Aadhaar card is linked to the registration certificate. We tried to find out the details of the previous owner. However, it was not found immediately in our online records. We will investigate further to ascertain how the vehicle transfer transaction was done and who from the RTA approved it,” Mr. Sivaram Prasad added.
