After the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh uncovered a massive toll tax scam involving 42 toll plazas across 14 states across the country, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) ordered action in connection with the scam on Friday. In its order dated January 24, 2025, the NHAI asked all the Regional Offices of all the toll plazas to take necessary action to check fraudulent practices and submit an ‘Action Taken Report’ to the CO Division.
Breaking News #BreakingNews | यूपी टोल प्लाजा पर ₹750 करोड़ का घोटाला!
— भारत समाचार | Bharat Samachar (@bstvlive) January 24, 2025
👉 STF ने मिर्जापुर के अतरैला टोल प्लाजा पर छापा मारा।
👉 NHAI के कंप्यूटर में सॉफ्टवेयर बदलकर वसूली की गई।
👉 100 टोल प्लाजा पर 5 साल में रोजाना ₹40-50 हजार का घोटाला।
👉 NHAI ने 3 दिन में रिपोर्ट मांगी।… pic.twitter.com/Nyf3N85k1z
The UP STF unearthed a huge scam on Tuesday in which crores of Rupees were siphoned off by diverting the money paid in toll tax. The full extent of the losses incurred by the government in countrywide scam is not yet known. An estimate of the total loss can be gauged from the fact that the NHAI suffered losses of Rs 45,000 daily at the Atraula toll plaza of Mirzapur. The STF raided the Atraula toll plaza on Tuesday and later arrested three persons named Alok Kumar Singh (Varanasi), Manish Mishra (Madhya Pradesh) and Rajiv Kumar Mishra (Prayagraj) in connection with the fraud. The STF arrested Alok Kumar Singh on Wednesday near Babatpur airport in Varanasi. From the information received after interrogating Singh, the STF arrested the other two culprits from Shivgulam toll plaza on Mirzapur highway.
Scammers developed an illegal software system to divert toll
Alok Kumar, a 35-year-old MCA graduate, allegedly masterminded the entire scam. He created an illegal software system to divert the toll collections to private bank accounts belonging to his gang members. This software targeted vehicles without FASTag or with insufficient FASTag balance which are typically charged double the toll. Singh reportedly created an unauthorised program that ran parallel to the NHAI official software and generated receipts resembling the authentic NHAI receipts which made it difficult to detect the fraud. He was assisted by toll plaza managers and IT professionals in installing the software on toll booth systems.
The other two arrested persons Manish Mishra and Rajiv Kumar Mishra worked as a toll booth employee and a toll manager respectively. The toll diverted by the illegal software system was shared among Singh and his accomplices including toll managers. Singh reportedly admitted to installing the software system at 42 toll plazas. Out of these 42 toll plazas, 9 are in Uttar Pradesh, 6 are in Madhya Pradesh, 4 each are in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, 3 each are in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, 2 each are in Punjab, Assam and West Bengal, and 1 each in Jammu, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.
Laptops, printers and other electronics recovered from the accused
The UP STF seized two laptops, a printer, five mobile phones, cash worth Rs 19, 580 and an MUV. The STF is interrogating the culprits and examining the seized gadgets. According to Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), STF, Vinod Kumar Singh, Alok Kumar Singh monitored transactions and details of non-FASTag vehicles through his laptop which had direct access to the illegal software. He added that legally 50 per cent of the tolls collected from non-FASTag vehicles should go to the NHAI but the culprits diverted this amount to their private bank accounts. Alok Kumar Singh had been operating the scam for the past two years with the help of his other two accomplices Sawant and Sukhantu who managed the system in the 42 toll plazas. To avoid suspicion, Singh made sure that only 5 per cent of tolls from non-FASTag vehicles were registered in the NHAI’s software and the rest was marked as exempted or unregistered.