Pramesh S Jain
In July last year the Bengaluru city traffic police began to install AI based enforcement cameras starting at 50 key junctions across the city and later spread to other area to cover the entire city to keep a watch on traffic violators and book them under appropriate sections of the law .
With surveillance cameras at every corner,The bikers started using fake number plates to avoid getting caught and end up paying hefty fines.
Initially police were caught off guard and after number of incidents of booking wrong vehicles surfaces the traffic police started special drive to flag such bikers and slap criminal cases .
However the unruly motorists devised a novel idea by masking and hiding the registration number plates and deliberately splashing dirt of the back side of number plate to make it look like accidental,to hoodwink the enforcement cameras to read and record the registration number .
Many of the bikers even tape,blacken few numbers and even cover the plate with plastic cover or by blocking with the helmet and leg while riding without helmets, triple riding and using mobile phones .
The idea is to mask their number plates,making them nearly invisible to the enforcement cameras and shield their number plates from the prying lenses of the cameras rendering it unreadable.
With their ingenious invention in place,The ghost Riders embarked on the city roads with bike stunts and involved in traffic violations unabated .
While some admired the bikers audacity,others motorists feared their recklessness and endangering the safety of others.The traffic police are baffled but taking tough decisions once again.
In last one year the traffic police with the help of responsible citizens has caught hundreds of defaulters who used to hide their number plates with face mask even many errant motorists used to cover with stickers,tape,to hoodwink cops and avoid fines highest number of violators were caught by Rajajinagar Traffic and Magadi Road Traffic 
and to teach them lesson cops used to detain their vehicles and used to release after clearing all pending fines and taking a bond and after fixing a number plate they used to release by giving warning.
Many violators were college students who used criminal idea to cover number plates with face mask and by hiding first two letters by taping it or bend number plates many used to remove the rear back side plate to avoid fines.
Traffic expert,Prof.MN Srihari told reporters that such reckless act of shows less fear about the law enforcement agencies.These bikers due to their rash and negligent behaviour not only contribute to the growing number of road accidents but also such acts encourage anti social activities .
Joint Commissioner of Police ( Traffic) MN Anucheth, said that the police are aware and launched a special drive against the masking number plates .
The bikers will be traced booked not only under IMV act but also under cheating case,he said.
Construction labour arrested by Mahadevapura Traffic police for riding with masked registration number plate to avoid fines.
It may be recalled that on Wednesday,KS Layout traffic police have tracked down and arrested a 20-year-old petrol pump station attendant who was involved in a road rage incident after making one number out of the four digits of his registration number plate .
The police who have had the video record of the incident,tried different number and track down his address.
The accused had involved in 39 traffic violations pending against him majority of which riding without helmet.
The accused was not only booked and slapped a fine of Rs.19,500 but also booked a cheating and also under riding rash and negligent manner to endanger human life .
