Employee of Panipat civic body, property owner booked for fraud
The local police have arrested a Municipal Corporation employee and a property owner for causing loss to the exchequer by committing an alleged fraud.
It is learnt that MC employee Sonu had allegedly reduced the property tax of Rs 9.72 lakh to Rs 12,672 in collusion with the property owner. The employee is also accused of reducing the fire tax from thousands of rupees to a nominal amount by changing the property ID. Following an inquiry by the Chief Minister Flying Squad (CMFS), the police had registered a case and were probing the matter.
It is the second such case against the MC employees in this month itself. Earlier, 12 MC officials were booked for an alleged sanitation scam of worth Rs 15 crore.
SI Raj Singh of the CM Flying Squad received information in July 2023 that one Dilbag of Mahmadpur village owned a 160 square yard commercial plot in Vrinda Enclave in Sector 13/17 here. The property tax of Rs 9.72 lakh was pending against the plot. However, the property owner in collusion with MC employee Sonu generated a new property ID of Dilbag’s plot and reduced the tax from Rs 9.72 lakh to about Rs 12,000.
Following the complaint, the CMFS began investigating the matter. It came to light that Dilbag had a property measuring 611.10 square yards in unapproved Jyoti Colony, while he had shops on 160 square yards and Rs 9.72 lakh property tax was pending against it.
The Yashi company had conducted the property survey in 2022-23 and a new ID was created in the name of Dilbag Singh and the property status was shown 199.560 square yards in unauthorised land area. During the inquiry, it was also revealed that the property tax of 160 square yards was calculated at Rs 1,95,120 from financial year 2010-11 to 2023-24, but Sonu, in collusion with the property owner, showed the property tax of Rs 12,672 for two years, including Rs 5,760 property tax and Rs 576 fire tax for 2022-23 and similar amount of property tax and fire tax for FY 2023-24.
The property owner immediately deposited the pending amount. The remaining property tax of Rs 1.82 lakh was allegedly deleted from the record. As per the MC record, the area was shown unapproved, but Sonu showed the property in approved area and took only two years’ property tax in 2023, causing a loss of Rs 1.82 lakh to the exchequer.
