UP Journalist Receives Bizarre Fine For Not Wearing Helmet While Driving His Car

In a surprising turn of events, a journalist from UP was slapped with a Rs 1,000 fine by the Noida police for allegedly driving his car without wearing a helmet. Tushar Saxena, who lives over 200 kilometres away from Noida in Rampur, was stunned to see the text message about the fine. Initially dismissing the fine as a mistake, Saxena was later contacted multiple times by the authorities, including through email and additional messages.

According to a report in NDTV, the challan was issued for a supposed helmet violation, which Saxena finds perplexing since helmets are not a standard requirement for car drivers. The challan was issued to Saxena last year in November.

The Noida police warned him that if he failed to pay the fine, he would have to appear in court.

Saxena has expressed his astonishment at the fine, asserting that he never travelled to the NCR region with his vehicle. He has also questioned the legitimacy of the fine and requested written clarification on the helmet rule.

“If you are violating traffic rules, then it is common to receive a fine but that is not my case. I have never driven my car to the NCR area. And if there’s any rule that says we have to wear a helmet inside a car, then the authorities must give this to me in writing,” Saxena said as quoted by NDTV.

The report also mentioned the Rampur-based television journalist bought his white Hyundai car in March last year. He is now hoping that the Noida Police would review and potentially cancel the fine against him.

This wasn’t the first time such a bizarre incident involving traffic challans has surfaced. A similar case took place in June where a man from Jhansi was fined Rs 1,000 by traffic police for allegedly driving an Audi without wearing a helmet.

Bahadur Singh Parihar, president of the Jhansi Truckers’ union, received the fine via a text message. Interestingly, while the challan showed a two-wheeler, the challan mentioned “motor car” to describe the type of vehicle.

Rather than contesting the fine, Parihar opted to wear a helmet while driving to avoid any further penalties. When he visited the RTO office to report the mistake, officials advised him to wait until after the Lok Sabha elections for any resolution. In the meantime, Parihar continued to wear a bike helmet while driving, hoping to steer clear of additional fines.

A similar incident occurred in 2017 in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, where a man was mistakenly fined for not wearing a helmet while driving his Maruti Omni minivan.