Not a cop: Kochi man’s number turns into traffic control hotline

Kochi: For the past two weeks, K Vikraman Pillai has been bombarded with phone calls from well-meaning citizens trying to reach the city’s traffic police control room.

Pillai, who has been using the same mobile number since 2009, is the Administrative Manager at Lulu Group. But his number has somehow found its way online as the official contact for the Kochi traffic police control room. As a result, he now receives daily calls reporting everything from illegal parking to road accidents.

According to Pillai, he has been using the number for 16 years after it was issued to him for official use. He has no idea who listed it on the police website. “Now I spend a good part of my day explaining that I am not the police,” he says.

Despite lodging complaints, the response he got was far from comforting — he was simply advised to change his number. But for someone using the number for professional purposes for over a decade, that’s hardly a practical solution.

Left clueless about how his number got mistakenly published, Pillai eventually filed a petition with the Assistant Police Commissioner. He was told that an investigation would be conducted and corrective action taken. For now, Vikraman Pillai hangs on to that assurance.