Dharani probe flags possible backend tampering of challans
HYDERABAD: A government-appointed high-level committee is probing whether funds meant for the state exchequer were diverted through backend manipulation of the Dharani software. The inquiry is examining whether transaction categories and values were altered at the coding stage, allowing illegal gains, officials said.
The panel is verifying how many challans were generated since Dharani’s launch, how much farmers actually paid on the ground, and what was reflected in online records. Investigators are also checking whether land value entries or document categories were changed after payments were collected.
Terrasys role under scanner after Jangaon findings
Suspicion has centred on Terrasys, which handled Dharani’s operations under the previous government. Officials are examining whether developers, using technical access, tampered with numbers in backend coding. The probe gained momentum after irregular challans surfaced in Jangaon and neighbouring districts.
The committee is comparing automated software calculations with actual bank records and final registration documents to see if the figures match. Investigators are also assessing whether money collected from farmers failed to reach the treasury due to deliberate manipulation.
‘Edit option’ focus: small fees locked, big charges editable
Officials say the portal design itself raises questions. Minor user charges were locked and could not be altered, but key revenue components such as market value-based payments, stamp duty and registration charges allegedly had an ‘edit option’. This, they suspect, may have enabled differences between the challan amount paid and the amount shown online.
Since Dharani’s integration with Bhubharati, around ₹5,000 crore worth of transactions have taken place. Of nearly 52 lakh land transactions overall, about 40 lakh were recorded through Dharani alone.
After the change of government, portal management was handed over to the National Informatics Centre. As a central government agency now manages the system, the committee is conducting an end-to-end scrutiny of about 48 lakh transactions.
Category switching, value reduction under lens
Investigators are examining whether sale deeds were wrongly converted into low-fee categories such as family gift deeds or partitions at the backend. While sale deeds and non-family gift deeds attract substantial stamp duty and registration fees, family transactions involve nominal charges.
Officials suspect that, in some cases, farmers may have paid full sale deed charges, while backend coding reclassified the transaction into a lower-fee category, diverting the balance away from government revenue.
The committee is also probing whether transaction values were reduced. In land registrations, stamp duty is calculated on the higher of government market value or actual sale value. Investigators are checking if transactions reflecting higher market prices were recorded at lower government values in the system.
For example, if a farmer paid fees based on a ₹20 lakh market value but the backend showed only a ₹5 lakh government value, the treasury would receive far less than what was collected. Officials are examining whether such dual manipulation — category change and value reduction occurred.
Despite the scale of data involved, the committee is examining bank payment records, portal entries and final documents to determine whether deliberate tampering took place and how much revenue, if any, was lost.
