Udupi: A fraud case involving the misuse of a bank seal and duplication of challans in property tax payments of the Udupi City Municipal Council was registered at the Udupi Town police station.CMC commissioner Mahantesh Hangargi stated in a complaint that property tax payments in his office are made by generating challans through e-receipts, and depositing the amount into the municipal council’s account at Union Bank.
On Feb 3, while checking property tax payments at the office, staff noticed that a challan dated Jan 28, carried the Union Bank seal. However, there was no entry regarding the payment in the Union Bank account statement for the same date. The municipal staff brought this discrepancy to the notice of the complainant.Further, on Feb 4, while verifying property tax payments again, officials examined challans bearing the Union Bank seal dated Feb 4. During the verification, it was found that these challans were already generated on Jan 28. Two challans with the same challan number but bearing Union Bank seals with two different dates were found.It is suspected that unknown miscreants misused the Union Bank seal, collected property tax payments, and cheated the authorities. In this connection, a case was registered under Sections 336(2), 336(3), (forgery) 340(2) (using forged document), 318(4) (cheating) read with 3(5) (common intention by several people to commit crime) of the BNS.
