MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Inspector General of Police (South Zone) and Madurai City Police Commissioner to constitute a special investigation team headed by a senior IPS officer with proven integrity to probe into the property tax scam in Madurai Corporation.
A bench of justices SM Subramaniam and AD Maria Clete gave the direction while hearing a PIL plea by an AIADMK councillor T Ravi seeking CBI probe.
According to Ravi, the mayor and zonal chairpersons, in connivance with corporation officials, had committed a huge scam in property tax collection and it was brought to the notice of the corporation commissioner by AIADMK councillors during council meetings.
Commercial properties charged at housing tax rate
Subsequently, the commissioner had appointed an inquiry committee, and based on its report, he had lodged a complaint with the city police commissioner.
The gist of the complaint, as per Ravi’s petition, was that during 2022-2024, at the instigation and knowledge of the mayor and zonal chairpersons of the corporation, officials had fraudulently mutated commercial tax properties into house tax by reducing built area, changing commercial into semi-commercial portions, removing additional rooms, etc., from the tax server.
Initially the officials increased the property tax and made the public suffer and then illegally reduced the taxes to enable interested persons to pay less tax to the civic body, causing a total loss of over Rs 200 crore to the civic body, Ravi alleged.
Though the commissioner had lodged the complaint as early as September 2024, police registered a case only in June 2025, he pointed out. He further alleged that the police have only arrested low-ranking officials and contract staff and left out the real culprits by acting hand-in-glove with the latter.