Sale deed registry fraud caused Haryana govt a loss of ₹3.5 crore in stamp duty, says ACB
Gurugram tehsildar Darpan Kamboj, plot owner Harish and four other suspects have been arrested in the case so far
The nature of a one-acre plot in Daulatabad, along the Dwarka Expressway, was fraudulently changed from “industrial” to “agricultural” and shown as “licensed for development of residential colony” in government records, causing the state exchequer a revenue loss of at least ₹3.5 crore, anti-corruption bureau (ACB) officials said on Tuesday, adding that Gurugram tehsildar Darpan Kamboj, plot owner Harish and four other suspects have been arrested in the case so far.
Bureau officials said it was tehsildar Kamboj, who allegedly executed the manual registry of the plot (measuring approximately 4,200 square yards) after conniving with land owner Harish, a developer. The change in the nature of land meant that the government collected a stamp duty of only about ₹56 lakh instead of the actual duty of about ₹4 crore, thereby causing a loss to the exchequer, said ACB officials.
Officials said manual registry --- instead of an electronic one -- empowered the tehsildar to change the nature of the land from ”industrial” to ”agricultural”.
Harish, Kamboj and four others suspects, including lawyer Pankaj and architect Shivam Mehra, have been arrested by the bureau in the forgery case until now, while a zonal taxation officer of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and his reader, a contractual employee, are on the run, said ACB officials.
Harish and Kamboj were arrested on April 6, the day ACB registered an FIR in the case after a yearlong inquiry.
{{/usCountry}}Harish and Kamboj were arrested on April 6, the day ACB registered an FIR in the case after a yearlong inquiry.
{{/usCountry}}A senior bureau official said the plot was owned by a Delhi resident who sold it to Harish in December 2021.
{{/usCountry}}A senior bureau official said the plot was owned by a Delhi resident who sold it to Harish in December 2021.
{{/usCountry}}“Harish, with the help of MCG zonal taxation officer and reader, got a forged document prepared showing the said plot among those licensed from the department of town and country planning for residential development,” he said, asking not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}“Harish, with the help of MCG zonal taxation officer and reader, got a forged document prepared showing the said plot among those licensed from the department of town and country planning for residential development,” he said, asking not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}He said later the land’s nature in government records was changed by executing a manual registry instead of online one, and the sale yielded a stamp duty of about ₹56 lakh instead of the actual duty of about ₹4 crore.
{{/usCountry}}He said later the land’s nature in government records was changed by executing a manual registry instead of online one, and the sale yielded a stamp duty of about ₹56 lakh instead of the actual duty of about ₹4 crore.
{{/usCountry}}“Had the tehsildar executed an online registry, he would not have been able to change the nature of land as the software would have automatically categorised it as “industrial”. This caused a loss of at least ₹3.5 crore to the exchequer,” he said.
According to investigators, they have seized a personal accounts book from the tehsildar in which it was mentioned that his share of bribe money to perpetrate the fraud was ₹46 lakh.
When asked, Chander Mohan, Gurugram range superintendent of police, ACB, said at least ₹70 lakh in bribe exchanged hands to save the parties a stamp duty of ₹3.5 crore.
“The sale would have led to construction of an illegal colony as the developer had started selling the plots to common people on the basis of forged documents, which showed that he had a DTCP licence and the registered sale deed,” he said.
Investigators said besides the tehsildar, bribes were also allegedly paid to other government officials. They said the tehsildar tried to save himself claiming that he executed manual registry after perusing mutation papers of 1997 placed before him. “But had he checked the details online, it would have been clearly reflected that the plot in question was industrial land that did not have any licence from DTCP for residential development,” he said.
Bureau officials said the MCG ZTO had moved a city court seeking anticipatory bail but his plea was rejected on Monday. The bail plea of ZTO’s reader had also been rejected. ACB said the involvement of more government officials could not be ruled out at this stage in the case.
