Vehicles seized by law enforcers in a tangle

Hundreds of seized buses and cars are rusting almost to the point of uselessness in the capital city because of the absence of a guideline and legal hitches, reports bdnews24.com. These vehicles, mostly buses, were confiscated for not having registration, fitness certificate, number plates and route permits, and on various other charges. Parts of many impounded vehicles are also being stolen from the 'unprotected' dumping ground at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, the open space in front of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) building, on government land near Shahbagh Police Station and at Jatrabari. Officials say the vehicles had to be left to rot this way since the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's traffic department has no dumping ground of its own. The vehicles could not be auctioned because of pending cases, they added and so the fate of those vehicles could not be determined. Between August 2009 and March 2011, mobile courts seized 583 vehicles and sent those to different 'temporary' dumping grounds. Traffic sergeant Ashim Shikder, in-charge of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar dumping ground, told that some of the seized vehicles had no licence, route permit or fitness certificate while some were smuggled in. Some of the vehicles were also detained for not following the meter-fare, meeting with accidents or for violating traffic rules, he added. The ground, adjacent to Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, was crammed with several hundreds private cars, bus and other vehicles. Several thousand rickshaws were kept under the open sky. Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional deputy commissioner (west) Ilias Sharif said: "In most cases, vehicle owners take those back after paying the wrecker charge and the fines." "But in case of serious crimes or charges, the vehicles cannot be returned to the owners until the court settles the cases," Sharif added. There is no guideline on what should be done with a vehicle until the disposal of the cases, or on the timeline for putting it on auction, Sharif said. The cases mostly remain unresolved for long, he added.