Pune: Hard Disk Containing PMC Property Tax Data Stolen From Server Room; Police Complaint Filed After a Month
Pune, 24th June 2026: A 4TB hard disk used in the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) server room and containing data related to the civic body’s property tax department was allegedly stolen by a contractual employee responsible for maintaining the servers, raising concerns over data security and administrative oversight.
The matter came to light during the PMC’s general body meeting after Congress corporator Arvind Shinde questioned the administration over the disappearance of civic data and sought details of the action taken.
Responding to the query, Deputy Commissioner Ravi Pawar of the property tax department informed the House that the incident had occurred last month. According to him, the employee concerned was summoned for questioning and allegedly admitted to taking the hard disk. Pawar said a police complaint had been filed against the individual.
However, sources said that the First Information Report (FIR) was registered at Shivajinagar police station only on Monday night — nearly a month after the alleged theft and after the issue was raised in the general body.
According to civic sources, the 4TB hard disk, which was part of the server infrastructure of the tax assessment and tax collection department, went missing from the server room on May 25. The hard disk reportedly contained records related to lakhs of property owners in the city.
The disappearance initially went unnoticed. It was only on June 9, when officials were unable to access certain files and data, that a verification of the server room was carried out. During the inspection, the hard disk was found to be missing.
Officials from the Information Technology Department subsequently reviewed CCTV footage and allegedly found that the employee entrusted with monitoring the server room had removed the device. The employee was later called for questioning, during which he reportedly admitted to taking the hard disk.
Senior civic officials informed the general body that the hard disk was eventually returned after the employee was confronted about the incident. However, the matter has raised serious concerns as the device allegedly contained sensitive property tax records and other data linked to lakhs of Pune residents.
Officials further stated that the hard disk had been formatted after it was removed from the server room, making the stored information inaccessible to the civic administration. The extent of data loss and whether any information can be recovered remains unclear.
The incident has sparked questions over the security protocols governing the PMC’s digital infrastructure and the delay in reporting the matter to the police despite its potential implications for citizen data.
