PANIPAT (SATISH HANDA): An RTI information by Sumeet Rathi reveals that fraud in stamp duty for amount worth Rs 11.84 crore has been detected in 557 property registration cases in five tehsil offices of Panipat district in Haryana state during audit investigation for years 2018-19 and 2019-20. According to audit report, stamp duty fraud worth over Rs 10.22 crore in stamp duty in 409 registration cases was detected in Panipat tehsil in this period. Similarly, stamp duty fraud worth Rs 92.83 lakh in 95 registration cases was detected in Samalkha tehsil, fraud worth Rs 22.56 lakh in 24 registration cases was detected in tehsil Bapoli, fraud of value worth Rs 43.54 lakh was detected in 24 registration cases in tehsil Matloda and fraud worth Rs 2.92 lakh was detected in five registration cases in tehsil Israna allegedly with the involvement of office staff as well as agents mushrooming in tehsil offices in the state.

Information reveals, agents are ruling in tehsil offices all over in the state involved in illegal practices managing the registrations of commercial properties in residential category, finalizing registration cases without obtaining no objection certificate from concerned government authorities, registrations of residential buildings in unapproved colonies and covered area of a building shown much lesser to save property tax as detected during audit.