Gurugram, Jan 27 (PTI) A team from the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) along with the local police arrested a person who allegedly used to pass on information about vehicle inspections to truck drivers through WhatsApp for a commission, officials said on Thursday.

They identified the accused as Balram, a resident of Sahrawan village near Manesar here.

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Police said Balram had created a Whatsapp group named ‘Rao Helpline' and it comprised around 100 truck and other heavy duty vehicle drivers. He used to alert the recipients about police and RTA ‘nakabandhis' and inspections at various locations on WhatsApp via voice messages.

Police said the drivers, mainly plying from Gurugram to Delhi, were particularly concerned about fines levied on them for overloading their trucks.

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Armed with information about the police checks, they used to either take an alternate route or make other arrangements to pass through without being apprehended.

On the intervening night of January 25 and 26, an RTA team led by inspector Pawan Kumar had set up barricades near Bilaspur on the Delhi-Jaipur highway in order to inspect such vehicles. The officer happened to see an SUV following him for a long time and then remaining parked on the roadside close to where the barricades were placed.

Kumar, who got suspicious about the SUV, took its driver Balram into custody and questioned him, during which the network came to light.

According to the police complaint filed by Kumar, Balram revealed that he and his friends used to run the WhatsApp group and charge Rs 500 – Rs 1,000 from the drivers for alerting them.

“It has been found that the accused Balram has connected about 100 drivers of Rewari, Narnaul, Mahendragarh and Gurugram with the Rao Helpline Whatsapp group. Through this group, Balram used to give information about all RTA nakas through voice messages. At night, these overloaded vehicles used to move from Gurugram to Delhi,” inspector Pawan Kumar's complaint copy read.

An FIR has been registered against Balram under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant) 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the Indian Penal Code at Bilaspur police station.

“We are questioning the accused and trying to find out the group members,” inspector Jai Prakash, SHO, Bilaspur police station, said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)