A team of five strongmen built a bogus toll plaza on private land in Gujarat’s Morbi district barely 600 meters from the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) official toll plaza.
In a development that is nothing short of a movie, the team of five strongmen built a bogus toll plaza on private land in Gujarat’s Morbi district barely 600 meters from the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) official toll plaza, IE reported.
As per the report, the unprecedented incident came to light when Gujarat police booked five men, including the sarpanch and his brother from Vaghasia village for running a fake toll plaza built on National Highway (NH) 8A. As per the media reports, this continued for 12 years until December 2022, and the scamsters were able to collect Rs 75 crore from vehicles.
On the face of it, a good deed was on display — funds for building temples in Vaghasia village. Further, the passing vehicles were presented an irresistible offer for paying far less than the official toll. Commuters had to pay merely Rs 50 for trucks and Rs 10 for cars on the fake stand instead of the official Rs 110 and Rs 380/720 (depending on the number of its axle), respectively at the NHAI booth. While it was only a two kilometer detour before the official plaza, commuters started taking the bypass to save money by paying at NHAI toll.
The dream run of the fake toll booth came to an end on December 4, when the Gujarat police booked the sarpanch and his brother from Vaghasia village, for allegedly forcing motorists to bypass the NHAI toll plaza and “extorting” money from them. The five accused are currently on run.
The FIR mentions the names of Vaghasia village sarpanch Dharmendrasinh Zala, whose wife is a BJP member from Wankaner taluka panchayat and was its president till September; his brother Yuvrajsinh Zala; Amarshi Patel alias Amarshi Vansjaliya, the son of Jeram Vansjaliya, a prominent Patidar leader whose family owns the defunct tile factory that was the site for one of the two fake booths; and their accomplices Ravirajsinh Zala and Harvijaysinh Zala. All the accused, except for Amarshi, are residents of Vaghasia village, police said.
Notably, after busting the fake toll booth, the NHAI booth’s daily toll collection has gone up from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. A toll collector at the plaza told IE, “Before December 4, around 7,000 vehicles would pass through daily. That number has increased to 8,500 now.”
The residents of Vaghasia have reportedly stood in support of the accused claiming that the money collected at the fake toll was used in the welfare of the village.
“The funds collected over the past 10 years were never misused. That money was used to build four temples and a cricket ground in the village. The sarpanch would also help poor villagers with marriage expenses,” a villager told The Indian Express.
One of the main reasons the accused chose NH 8A to set up the fake toll booth is because it connects the ceramic hub of Morbi with the rest of the country. As per the sources, the traffic on the highway increased significantly after the Rajkot International Airport became operational with motorists preferring it to the toll-free Rajkot-Morbi state highway that passes through Rajkot city.
When NHAI started getting complaints about the illegal toll booths, District Collector GT Pandya set up a team led by Wankaner Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) AH Sherasiya comprising Morbi district police officers to investigate reports of the fake toll booths, uncovering the scam.