Lamborghini Huracan SEIZED By Bangalore RTO After Owner Forged Documents To Evade Road Tax
The number of exotic cars on Indian roads has gone up in the last 10 years. We have more sports cars and supercars on our roads than ever before. Tax evasion has now become a very common thing among many expensive car owners and the Karnataka Regional Transport Office (RTO) has been taking action against such offenders.
They have caught several out-of-state state vehicles that were being used in Karnataka without paying taxes in the past. Bangalore officials of the Karnataka RTO have now seized a Lamborghini Huracan after the owner was found using the vehicle with forged documents.
For forging documents to evade road tax. The video has been shared by NammaBengaluroo on their Instagram page. The same issue has been covered by a couple of mainstream media houses too. Transport Department officials received an anonymous email some time ago where it claimed that a Lamborghini Huracan Evo is being used in the state with allegedly forged documents in order to avoid paying taxes.
The concerned authorities looked into the matter and filed a police complaint. The complaint was filed against H1 Car Care for allegedly forging documents to illegally register their Lamborghini in Karnataka.
As per the complaint filed by Senior Motor Vehicle Inspector Ranjith N, the Huracan Evo was originally purchased by Harsha Infra Cons Pvt. Ltd. back in 2022 for slightly over Rs 3 crore. The vehicle was temporarily registered in Electronic City and after this, the vehicle was registered under an RTO in Hyderabad.
In 2025, the Karnataka officials received the email where it claimed that H1 Car Care had forged documents and had illegally registered the same vehicle at Kasturinagar RTO using forged documents, including invoices. The email even contained a copy of these forged documents.
Officials got in touch with the authorised Lamborghini dealer and it was confirmed that the vehicle was originally sold to Harsha Infra Cons and the papers submitted at Kasturinagar RTO were actually forged.
As per the fake documents, H1 Car Care bought the car for the same price as Harsha Infra Constructions. They used a three-year-old invoice, forged it and reused it to get their vehicle registered in Karnataka.
The officers now believe this is a deliberate attempt to actually evade tax and penalties, reports TOI. As the owner used a three-year-old invoice, he actually undervalued the vehicle and evaded taxes and penalties of over Rs 37 lakh.
Once the officials were sure that the documents were fake, they took action. They located the vehicle at Sahakarnagar and seized the vehicle after the owner reportedly failed to cooperate with the investigation. A formal police complaint has also been filed for the same.
As per the complaint registered with Kodigehalli Police, H1 Car Care is the number one accused and Harsha Infra Cons Pvt. Ltd. is the second accused.
This is not the first time the Karnataka Transport Department has taken such action against owners of exotic cars. In fact, it is not just exotic cars that are being targeted.
Karnataka's Bangalore (Bengaluru) is an IT hub, with professionals from across the country migrating in search of better jobs. Most of these professionals bring their vehicles from their home states, for use in Bengaluru.
While some pay road tax, others don't, in the hope that officials will turn a blind eye. However, RTO officials in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka have now realized that a large number of 'out-of-state' vehicles are plying in the state without paying road tax.
RTO officials have began swooping down on them. RTO officials are known to camp outside IT parks, malls and other high traffic zones to spot and seize out-of-state vehicles that have evaded road tax.
As per the Central Motor Vehicles Act (1988), a vehicle can legally operate in another state for up to 11 months with an NOC from its home state.
During this period, no road tax has to be paid in the new state. However, after 11 months, if the vehicle remains in the new state, the owner must pay the road tax and re-register the vehicle.
If the vehicle owner fails to get the vehicle registered in the new state, he or she is actually driving the vehicle illegally, as the owner has not paid the road tax of the new state. Road tax collection is calculated depending on the age of the vehicle, on a pro-rata basis.
If a vehicle is 10 years old, then the owner has to pay road tax for only five remaining years of the vehicle’s 15-year life in the new state. So, if a vehicle is two years old, the road tax for 13 years has to be paid in the new state according to the Central law.
India needs a unified road tax structure, through which professionals are able to migrate seamlessly between states without having to pay road tax at each new state they migrate to. However, this is easier said than done.
India is a union of states, and as per the federal structure of the Indian constitution, states have the right to make laws governing the transport sector. This has led to a mismatch between various states, particularly in the amount of road tax charged. While some states charge low road tax (measured as a percentage of the vehicle's invoice value), others charge a much higher road tax.
This asymmetry has meant that many private vehicle owners register their vehicles in states with low road tax but ply them in states that have higher road tax.
States that charge higher road tax - especially southern states such as Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Kerala - have noticed this evasion and are taking stringent measures to book offenders.
The only way this can be prevented is by all states charging road tax uniformly. However, states are unlikely to agree on giving up the revenue they earn through road tax. This brings us back to square one: Tax evasion, and constant friction between vehicle owners and authorities. Clearly, we haven't heard the last of this!