Gwalior: A social media stunt to express love proved costly after a Gwalior man’s car was covered with 3,400 lipstick marks by his girlfriend, prompting the police to impose a fine of Rs 5,500 on him and order him to remove the marks. The car had been driven around Gwalior’s City Centre for two days before a video of it went viral on social media. Traffic police traced the vehicle and imposed the fine on its owner for modifying the vehicle, an official said.
“Two days ago, a video went viral on social media showing a car with lipstick-like marks on its body moving in the City Centre area,” Traffic Police Inspector Abhishek Raghuvanshi said. During investigation, the car was found to be from the Thatipur area. The driver was taken to the police station, and a fine of Rs 5,500 was imposed on him under MV Act, he said.
The police also made the man clean the car and remove all lipstick marks from it, highlighting a lesser-known aspect of motor vehicle law — vehicle owners cannot make modifications or alterations that violate prescribed rules. Car owner Aditya Sikarwar told reporters that his girlfriend, following a “foreign trend”, decided to decorate the car in this style. “She spent about three and a half hours working to create 3,400 lipstick marks all over the car and then uploaded a video of it on social media,” he said. “Since I wasn’t aware that doing so was illegal, after the police action, I cleaned the entire car body to remove the lipstick marks and paid a fine of Rs 5,500. One should never do anything that violates the law,” he added. “When someone buys a vehicle from a showroom, it complies with the prescribed traffic and motor vehicle guidelines. For any further changes, one has to take permission, which will be examined by the competent authority,” the official said.