Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jun 26: A massive vehicle registration scam has come to light in the Dakshina Kannada transport department, exposing a racket where luxury car owners allegedly evaded crores in taxes with the assistance of transport officials.

The scam involves a high-end Mercedes-Benz AMG G63, a car worth around Rs 2.5 crore. While the vehicle's engine and chassis numbers are genuine, the model number was fraudulently altered. The car was originally purchased in 2017 from a Bengaluru showroom by Mangaluru resident Nihal Ahmad. Since then, the vehicle had been running on temporary registration plates for eight years, without ever being assigned a permanent number.

In 2025, Nihal Ahmad sold the car to one Niraj Sharma from Mangaluru. While the engine and chassis numbers remained unchanged, the car’s model number was altered during the resale process. Instead of being registered as the AMG G63 model, which would incur a road tax of Rs 20–22 lac, the car was falsely recorded as a Mercedes-Benz GLA 200 — a model valued at around Rs 50 lac, requiring only Rs 5–6 lac in road tax.

Sources allege that this fraudulent alteration was done with the help of officials from the Mangaluru transport department, who changed the model number in the official records to reflect a cheaper variant.

The fraud came to light during a luxury vehicle inspection drive in Mysuru, where the car was finally seized by transport authorities. Following the discovery, the vehicle’s RC (registration certificate) has been blacklisted, and an investigation has been launched under the directive of the joint commissioner of the Shivamogga regional transport department.

This revelation has highlighted a significant loophole in the transport department's operations, indicating systemic corruption and massive loss to the state exchequer.