LAHORE, Jan 30: The Punjab Board of Revenue (BoR) authorities seem reluctant to take action against some influential officials in a scam involving over 200 fake mutations in Shahdara Patwar Circle surfacing a couple of months ago.

A senior BoR official told Dawn, requesting anonymity, that mutations (land transfer deeds) of commercial and residential properties in Shahdara Circle had been registered and subsequently verified and passed on the basis of fake stamp papers and signatures of the sub-registrar concerned, caused millions of rupees loss to the exchequer.

The BoR management, after becoming aware of the scam, rectified and re-registered more than 80 of the 200 mutations in favour of the actual owners of the properties concerned, he said.

However, the authorities terminated the service of only one patwari for ‘negligence’ while action is yet awaited against six tehsildars and qanoongos who had verified and passed the fake mutations, the official added.

The official said it was unusual for the BoR senior management to cancel over 200 mutations in a single circle at once and it was done to avoid ‘legal complications’.

He said the ‘scam’ surfaced in November last year and the inquiries were ordered into the matter to know whether any senior officer was involved in it.

Initially, an FIR (No 696/12) was lodged with Shahdara police station against two local commissions allegedly for using fake stamps to get the mutations registered.

Later, some unidentified people set on fire a small portion of the Shahdara Circle Patwar Khana in a bid to destroy evidences to mislead the investigators and the authorities concerned.

The official said during the departmental probes, the BoR management was informed that the fake mutations were registered and passed during a span of three years during which three tehsildars/ROs and as many qanoongos remained posted in the circle.

The inquiries also established that the local commissions had used fake stamp papers, signatures and stamps of the sub-registrars concerned and the local patwari registered the mutations on the basis of these illegal documents.

Consequently, the service of Shahdara Circle Patwari Mumtaz Ahmad was terminated under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act and a criminal case was lodged against the two accused local commissions.

However, punitive action was yet to be recommended against ‘influential’ tehsildars and qanoongos who verified and passed these 200 fake mutations, the official said.

He said the scam caused a loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs40 million mainly under the heads of mutation fee, registry fee and Capital Value Tax (CVT) which was to be deposited against the 200 mutations.

He said despite discussing the matter in detail, the BoR Senior Member, the Lahore Division Commissioner and the Additional District Collector Revenue were reluctant to take departmental action against the accused officials because of immense pressure being exerted by some local parliamentarians and certain other quarters.

He said on the orders of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Noorul Amin Mengal, the case against the patwari and two local commissions was referred to Anti-Corruption Establishment.

Surprisingly, the official said, despite the ongoing ACE probe, Shahdara Circle patwari Mumtaz managed to get himself reinstated.

Mumtaz said his service was terminated for ‘mere negligence’ on the basis of a judicial inquiry and not on corruption charges so he was reinstated. He said the local commissions had used fake stamp papers and he (Mumtaz) was held responsible for bringing the scam ‘late’ to the knowledge of the relevant authorities.

Lahore Region ACE Assistant Director (Investigation) Zubair Ikhlaq said he was mandated to investigate the fake mutation case to check the involvement of a patwari and two local commissions. The notices had been served on the accused officials, he added.