Auto Driver — Tampered Meter

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

Today, we hired an auto to take us from Commercial Street to Kempapura, on meter. Once inside the auto, the driver asked for meter + 20. We said we would do meter + 10. When we started, we noticed that his meter registered 14 Rs for the standard fare instead of the current 17 Rs rate. He showed us a rate chart. On the way home, we noticed that the meter seemed to be running very fast. We keep a meticulous record of our auto charges, and a previous trip from Commercial Street to our flat in Kempapura cost 150 Rs. When we were still 1.5 km from our flat, the meter rate was already at 170 Rs!! We asked the driver to stop immediately and we would walk the rest of the way home. He stopped, fumbled around with the rate chart and a calculator and asked for 230 Rs!! Ridiculous. We told him we thought his meter was malfunctioning and he only smiled and shrugged. We showed him our previous expense and he was then in a hurry to leave. When we offered to settle the dispute with a policeman just down the road he took off. He did not have his registration papers displayed in his auto like most of them do. We did get his auto number though: KA 04 4607. Does anyone know of an official way to register a complaint with the Traffic Police? It is things like this that make us really dislike auto drivers. Thankfully, most of the ones we encounter are very nice and honest. It only takes one bad one, though, to sour the day.