The Income Tax Department has intensified its crackdown on suspected benami transactions, illegal funding, and unaccounted money in Rajasthan’s border districts. Land registration records worth more than Rs 150 crore were seized from sub-registrar offices in Jaisalmer and Sri Ganganagar. The operation, conducted by the Department’s Intelligence and Criminal Investigation Wing, aimed to scrutinize suspicious land transactions in border areas.
In Jaisalmer, investigators identified 170 land registration files with significant irregularities during a two-day inspection. Many of these registrations lacked mandatory Permanent Account Number (PAN) details of buyers despite involving high-value land transactions. Authorities suspect suspicious transactions exceeding Rs 80 crore in the district, with several payments allegedly made entirely in cash.
A detailed report on the findings will be submitted to the Jaipur headquarters for further investigation. The Jaisalmer operation involved a team comprising Assistant Director Laxmi Narayan Meena, Income Tax Officers Mahesh Kulhari and Anil Bhambhani, and Inspectors Paras Prakash and Abhinash Kumar. In Sri Ganganagar, a nine-member special team from Jaipur seized records relating to major property registrations carried out between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2026.
The probe follows an earlier investigation into the Anupgarh Sub-Registrar office, where suspected irregularities involving nearly Rs 75 crore worth of property registrations were detected. Officials have prepared a detailed digital database of the registrations and will seek original records from the DIG (Stamps) for further verification. The Income Tax Department will scrutinize transactions involving cash payments exceeding Rs 2 lakh, particularly cases where mandatory PAN details or other supporting documents are missing.
If investigations establish violations of tax laws and taxpayers fail to provide satisfactory explanations for the source of funds, authorities may recover tax, penalties, and applicable interest in accordance with the provisions of the Income Tax Act. The latest action is part of a broader effort to monitor land transactions in Rajasthan’s border districts, including Jaisalmer, Sri Ganganagar, Barmer, and Bikaner, where land prices have risen sharply in recent years. Security and financial agencies are examining whether unaccounted money or funds from suspicious sources are being invested in land purchases in these strategically sensitive areas.
Earlier, the Income Tax Department had conducted similar confidential verification exercises in Barmer and Bikaner as part of its ongoing surveillance of high-value property transactions in border regions.
