MC scams and crimes have once again put Panipat in the spotlight.
The Panipat Municipal Corporation is no stranger to scams and allegations of corruption. 2025 was no different, when the civic body came under scrutiny following a property ID scam worth ₹4.5 crore, after which a case was registered against 12 people, including eight MC officials and two private firm owners.
In May, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered a case against 12 MC officials and the owners of two sanitation companies for an alleged scam related to sanitation contracts. The ACB’s investigation revealed massive financial irregularities in the contracts awarded by the MC, with the bureau finding collusion between the officials and the two companies, resulting in a loss of over ₹15.84 crore to the state exchequer.
In another case, the MC awarded a tender worth ₹36 lakh to a firm for cleaning Drain No. 1 here. During the investigation, it was found that the firm had submitted a fake experience certificate and a fake turnover certificate to the civic body. It is noteworthy that the MC Commissioner cancelled the firm’s tender and blacklisted its owner.
Even in June, the civic body found no respite from allegations of corruption: an alleged scam of ₹4.5 crore surfaced in its property tax branch.
It was revealed that the Personal Assistant (PA) of Joint Commissioner Sanjay Kumar was using his official login ID, manipulating property IDs and tax data using this access, and issuing no-dues certificates. Kumar complained to MC Commissioner Pankaj Yadav, following which Yadav ordered a detailed inquiry into the matter and a special committee was constituted.
The committee found that the PA, who was working under the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN), had allegedly committed these offences in connivance with some other employees and agents from various departments of the municipal corporation and the tehsil office.
The fraudsters not only reduced property taxes worth approximately ₹4.5 crore to ‘zero’ but also manipulated the linking and delinking of properties. Yadav suspended the PA immediately after the matter came to his notice, and the police were involved. However, the police did not register a case.
After an RTI activist filed a complaint with the Haryana Lokayukta regarding this matter, the case is still pending there. A similar situation was observed in everyday civic matters. Following complaints of poor sanitation, the municipal corporation fined a private company Rs 8.5 crore for allegedly failing to collect garbage door-to-door in the city area.
Cases that shook the state and the country
The district has also been in the headlines for gruesome crimes, including the murder of a model; the beating of a child while hanging him upside down; the alleged murders of children by Poonam, dubbed the ‘psycho killer’; and the arrest of spy Noman Ilahi, who was working for Pakistan, by Panipat police.
Ilahi – a resident of Kairana in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh – was arrested from the Sector-29 area on May 14.
During the investigation, it was revealed that he was in contact with Iqbal Kana, a wanted ISI handler in Pakistan. The spy is still in judicial custody.
In June, the murder of model Sheetal Chaudhary, alias Simmi Chaudhary, also shook the area. Chaudhary was allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend, who later dumped her body in a canal and allegedly fabricated a story to make the incident look like an accident.
In September, the district made headlines across the country when a video of a 7-year-old boy being beaten while hanging upside down in a private school went viral on social media. It was later revealed that the incident had taken place in August. Panipat police have arrested the principal of the private school and a cab driver in this case.
In early December, panic spread throughout the district when a six-year-old child was found dead in a water tub in Naultha village.
Police arrested the accused, Poonam, who later confessed to killing three other children, including her own son. Since then, he has been called a ‘psycho killer’.
