Kollam: The Kerala Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) in Punalur suspects inter-state vehicle fraud following an attempt to re-register it, claiming the Indian armed forces abandoned it, officials said on Monday.

The MVD had recently posted details of the fraud on its Facebook page. Officials say that the incident came to light after a Royal Enfield motorcycle with registration number HP-47-A-4670 was presented at the Punalur Sub-Regional Transport Office for re-registration.

Upon inspection, Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector Simod VS noticed discrepancies in its chassis number, so he verified it in the Parivahan database. This revealed that the motorcycle was initially registered with the Thiruvananthapuram RTO under the number KL-01-AV-4409 as a state government vehicle used by the Kerala Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB).

The vehicle was scrapped a few years back, and its registration was cancelled, according to an MVD officer. According to the Kerala government policy, its vehicles are scrapped after 15 years of service. These vehicles are strictly given for scrapping and not permitted for further registration, the MVD official said. 

Following this, the MVD officials then inquired about the vehicle's history with the person who produced it for re-registration. He said the motorcycle was purchased from a pre-owned dealer in Malappuram district, who had procured it from Haryana. The current owner appears unaware of the registration fraud, the officer said. 

What surprised MVD officials was that the motorcycle scrapped in Kerala was recorded as an ex-Army/auction vehicle and had been registered at the RTO Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh. Parivahan records show that it was purchased from the Army on July 22, 2025, and was re-registered fraudulently on July 24, 2025, using forged documents, the official said. 

MVD suspects that the person who purchased the two-wheeler from the government department for scrapping might have sold it to other state dealers. The dealer in another state might have used forged documents to register it in Himachal Pradesh, the officer said. MVD has handed over the vehicle to the police for conducting a detailed probe. Punalur police would register a case and conduct an investigation, the MVD official added.