Goa: 4 held for using red beacons on cars, pretending to be VIPs

Panaji: Four people impersonating as VIPs were arrested Monday for flaunting red beacons on their vehicles in Goa, flouting a Supreme Court ruling on use of red beacons, flashers, sirens and blue beacons on vehicles. The Supreme Court in a ruling 10 December barred use of red beacons on vehicles of all except those holding high constitutional posts or offices. The four people arrested in Goa Monday were using red beacons on their vehicles, police said. The beacons were installed atop two high-end cars, as the “VIPs” hit the state’s party circuit during peak tourist season. Police said the four arrested men, when questioned, said they were VIPs from Haryana and Delhi. They were riding a Tata Safari and a Toyota Fortuner. “Since they were impersonating as VIPs, we have booked them for cheating,” a police spokesperson said. [caption id=“attachment_1314625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image used for representational purposes. Reuters[/caption] The names of those arrested are: Yatindra Rao, Satyendra Yadav and Bhavesh Yadav, all from Delhi, and Gautam Rathod from Haryana. All of them are in the 25-27 years age range. They were arrested from within the jurisdictional area of Anjuna police station, an area that hosted a mega music party over the weekend. In an order 10 December on a public interest litigation, the apex court said only those holding constitutional posts “are entitled to the privilege” of using red beacons. It earlier termed the indiscriminate use of red beacons with flashers on vehicles by politicians and bureaucrats as a “menace” on roads, Delhi’s newly sworn-in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was one of the first to remove the beacons cfrom most official vehicles. IANS