Porsche owner in Gujarat pays ₹27.68 lakh to get his supercar back

Owner of a Porsche 911 sports car, worth around ₹2 crore, paid ₹27.68 lakh towards pending taxes, interest and penalty to get back his vehicle that was impounded for lack of valid documents and for being run in the state without registration since 2017, police said on Wednesday.

After paying the money to the by the Ahmedabad Regional Transport Office (RTO), the car owner- Ranjit Desai- took back his impounded car from the city traffic police on Tuesday after producing the RTO receipt, police sub inspector M B Virja, who had detained the silver-coloured sports car in November last year.

Ahmedabad Police shared the photo of the RTO receipt on its Twitter handle and claimed that the fine of ₹27.68 lakh was the highest ever in India.

RTO @cotguj slaps a fine of total INR 27.68 Lakh on Porsche Car which was detained during a routine check by Ahmedabad Traffic West Police for not having required documents. One of the highest fine amount levied in the country ever. #GujaratRTO #AhmedabadPolice pic.twitter.com/xPY14vdUmW

— Ahmedabad Police (@AhmedabadPolice) January 8, 2020

"RTO slaps a fine of total ₹27.68 Lakh on Porsche Car which was detained during a routine check by Ahmedabad Traffic West Police for not having required documents. One of the highest fine amount levied in the country ever," the traffic police tweeted on Wednesday.

As per the receipt, the car owner paid ₹16 lakh towards motor vehicle tax, ₹7.68 lakh as interest on that unpaid tax and ₹4 lakh as penalty.

The car was stopped by Virja at Helmet crossroad here on November 28 as it did not have number plates.

On being questioned, the driver had failed to produce valid documents of the vehicle too, the police officer said.

"We had therefore detained the car and issued an RTO memo under the Motor Vehicles Act. This means that he has to deposit the penalty with the RTO and come to us with a receipt to get back the vehicle," Virja said.

Initially a fine of ₹9.8 lakh was slapped, but when the owner went to deposit that amount, the RTO dug out old records and imposed the penalty of ₹27.68 lakhs, which is the highest in India, he added.

"This car was imported in 2017. Though the owner had initially registered the vehicle in Haryana, the number plates were missing when the car was impounded. Since the car is now in Gujarat, the RTO calculated the life time tax, interest on unpaid tax and penalty at ₹27.68 lakh. The owner took back his car on Tuesday after showing us the receipt," the officer added.