Income tax department survey reveals large-scale property scam in Gurgaon; 25,000 properties linked to fictitious PAN

An income tax survey in Gurgaon’s Badshahpur tehsil identified that a single fictitious Permanent Account Number (PAN), 'ABCDEF1234,' was used to register nearly 25,000 properties over the last two years, which shows a large-scale scam to hide high-value transactions from tax authorites, reports TOI’s Bagish Shah.

The Income Tax department’s directorate of intelligence and criminal investigation (I&CI), Chandigarh, had a seven-member team run a survey at the tehsil office on Thursday and was still examining registration records at the time of filing this report.

According to the sources cited by TOI, preliminary investigations indicated another 10,000-12,000 property transactions, involving an estimated Rs 15,000 crore, were not reported to the IT department.


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The survey unraveled more than 35,000 property transactions that were either not reported or were reported with an incorrect PAN, whose aggregate value is estimated to exceed 55,000 crores, the sources added.

"The action forms part of a sustained drive to identify non-reporting and incorrect reporting of high-value immovable property transactions by tehsildars and naib tehsildars and to ensure that complete and accurate information reaches the income tax department," an official told TOI.

Officials told TOI that the principal director general of IT, Delhi, also wrote to the Haryana chief secretary, underscoring deficiencies and the requirement for corrective measures.

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The IT department received assurance from the Haryana government that centralised SFT filing for the entire state would be undertaken for the 2025-26 financial year and is slated to be completed by May 2026. The inspector general of revenue had also assured improvement in reporting compliance.

However, TOI’s IT sources pointed out that the assurances did not translate to reality. They highlighted that Haryana's approximately 140 tehsildars had filed their SFTs by Thursday, although the deadline expired on May 31. In comparison, more than 120 tehsildars had filed their SFTs within the prescribed period last year.

Continuing defaults and discrepancies needed urgent intervention to ensure pending SFTs were filed, inaccurate particulars corrected and the centralised reporting mechanism was implemented effectively, with a reported TOI citing its sources.

"The directorate will continue verification of transactions detected and follow up on reporting compliance so that high-value property transactions can be accurately linked to the persons concerned," an official said.

(With inputs from TOI)