Rs96-lakh stamp duty scam unearthed in Rewari, 6 booked

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rewari, June 14

A case of stamp duty evasion has surfaced here, wherein Rewari Municipal Council (RMC) officials caused a revenue loss of Rs 96 lakh to the state exchequer by concealing the facts in connivance with the applicants while sanctioning the building plans.

The scam came to the fore during the inquiry made by Bawal SDM Jitender Gandhi following the directives of then Rewari Deputy Commission RC Verma to probe the complaints pertaining to stamp duty evasion.

On the basis of the inquiry report, the City police have registered a case under 13 sections of the IPC against then secretary of the RMC TR Sharma, then ME Ankit Vashisth, JE Krishan and building owners — Radha Gupta, Anil Kumar and Murari Lal.

Sources said the district authorities had, over six months ago, received several complaints about the commercial building plans illegally approved by the RMC officials and the information concealed by the land owners to get the deed registered with an intention to avoid the stamp duty.

“The SDM, in his inquiry report, has exposed the nexus between certain RMC, tehsil officials and the land owners that caused a huge revenue loss to the exchequer in last two years. The SDM also found many irregularities committed by the RMC in the sanction of eight commercial building plans,” said the sources.

The MC officials had also approved a commercial building plan without any permission from the government about change of land use (CLU) for the land concerned, said the report.

Verma had also urged the state government to institute a Vigilance inquiry to look into the matter. The government later ordered a vigilance probe, which is still going on.

Ram Kumar, SHO of the City police station, said all six persons had been booked under the IPC. The case had been sent to the economic cell, he added.