Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (TP)

Udupi, Feb 13: A case of alleged fraud involving the misuse of a bank seal in the payment of property tax has been registered at the Udupi Town police station.

According to the complaint filed by Mahantesh Hangaragi, commissioner of Udupi City Municipal Council, property tax payments collected at the municipal office are processed through the generation of e-receipts, and the corresponding challans are deposited into the municipal council’s account at Union Bank.

On February 3, while reconciling property tax payments at the office, staff noticed a challan dated January 28 bearing the seal of Union Bank. However, upon verification with the bank’s statement records for the same date, no entry reflecting the said payment was found. The discrepancy was immediately brought to the notice of the complainant.

Subsequently, on February 4, during further reconciliation of property tax payments, officials examined additional challans bearing the Union Bank seal dated February 4. Upon scrutiny, it was found that these challans carried a challan number that had already been generated earlier on January 28.

It was observed that two different challans bearing the same challan number, but with different dates and Union Bank seals, were in circulation. This led to the suspicion that unidentified accused persons had allegedly misused the Union Bank seal, collected property tax amounts from the public, and committed fraud without depositing the money into the municipal account.

Based on the complaint, a case has been registered at the Udupi Town police station.