The Income Tax Department on Sunday announced a massive hunt to track down the family of a “ghost” assessee from Mumbai who had declared Rs. 2,00,000 crore as undisclosed income under the Income Declaration Scheme earlier this year.

Sources in the department told The Hindu that the “suspicious” transaction reported by an assessee from Bandra was a “hoax” to send the tax officials on “a wild goose chase” or Abdul Razzaque Mohammad Sayed, purported head of the family, could, in all probability, be a “mentally challenged individual”.

If found guilty, he would be charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for showing “disregard and contempt” for government officials, sources said.

When reporters from The Hindu visited Flat No. 4 on the ground floor of Jubilee Court at Linking Road, the Bandra address mentioned in the declaration form it was found locked. Neighbours said the flat had been shut for the past seven years.

Other residents of the building said they were not aware of anyone named Abdul Razzaque living in the flat.

The name plate indicates the owner as one R.R. Vaid. However, the building secretary, Meena Madnani said the flat had been unoccupied for seven years. “The Vaid's sold the flat to a Sindhi family who converted it into a beauty parlour. They were very nice people and the Sonali Beauty Parlour was very popular in the area,” said Meena Madnani, secretary of the building.

Another resident said that they have never seen the ground floor flat open for several years.

"We have not seen anyone here after the Sindhi family left," said Yao Chhang, a resident of the building since the past 45 years.

The Sindhi family sold the flat to another buyer but the society members claim that they are not aware what happened after that. "We are not answerable to anyone. Whatever we had to submit, we have already submitted to the concerned department," said Ms. Madnani when asked about the details of the buyer of the flat after the Sindhi family left.

The two-storey building has 12 flats. The other residents said the secretary and the chairman who were appointed about seven years ago, had not held a meeting for the members since then.

Under the IDS, the assessees who had failed to pay the first installment of tax liability by September 30, were further given time until November 30 to fill up a self assessment tax (SAT) form online. This two page document was voluntarily filled up by many without any digital monitoring. It is possible that at this point somebody has played a mischief, tax officials said.

“The person has simply attempted to make a mockery of our system and while there are no relevant sections under the IT Act to charge him, we will apply the IPC sections to punish him for this,” said a senior tax official from the Mumbai circle.

According to government officials, among the declarations received, there were two sets of declarations of high value which were not taken on record in the final IDS figures because these declarations were found to be suspicious in nature being 'filed by persons of small means'.

Officials said these declarations from Mumbai and Ahmedabad were kept pending for investigation about the genuineness of the same and were not included in the total value of declarations announced on 1st October, 2016. After due enquiry, it was found that these declarants were persons of suspicious nature and very small means and the declarations could have been misused, officials said. ''The Department has since commenced enquiries against these declarants to determine the intention behind these false declarations,'' officials said.