Three persons convicted in ₹26.58-lakh commercial tax fraud case in Keralam

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Three persons, including a former junior superintendent of the Commercial Taxes Office in Neyyattinkara, were on Tuesday convicted and sentenced by the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court for alleged misappropriation of advance tax for interstate goods movement, thereby causing a loss of ₹26.58 lakh to the State exchequer.

Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance) Manoj A. pronounced the verdict against former junior superintendent L. Pushparani, 58, and Satheesh Kumar, 47, who allegedly acted as an intermediary between traders and officials, to 32 years of rigorous imprisonment each and imposed a fine of ₹11,36,193 on each of them. K. Francis, 66, a trader, was sentenced to eight years of rigorous imprisonment and fined ₹6,11,560.