Sanitary inspector of Kotkapura MC held for property tax fraud

Faridkot, January 20

The Vigilance Bureau on Friday arrested a sanitary inspector of the Kotkapura Municipal Committee for the alleged property tax embezzlement and destroying the record to cover up the fraud.

The suspect Prem Chand had committed the offence allegedly during his tenure as a clerk in Jaito Municipal Council during 2010-2017.

After getting a complaint, the Vigilance Bureau had started an investigation into the misappropriation of property tax in Jaito municipality last year. During the inquiry, Vigilance sleuths had charged Davinder Kumar, Ram Chand, Ramesh Kumar and Gurinderpal Singh with criminal breach of trust by a public servant, and criminal conspiracy.

During further investigation, it was found that Prem Chand, who had worked as a clerk in Jatio municipality from 2010-2017, was one of the main culprits in the misappropriation of funds.

Presently, he was working as an inspector in the Kotkapura municipality after getting a promotion.

The Vigilance sleuths found that a number of pages from the property tax record files were missing. It was alleged that the suspect collected property tax from residents but did not deposit it with the state exchequer and destroyed the record.