Three persons convicted in ₹26.58 crore commercial tax fraud case in Kerala

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Three persons, including a former junior superintendent of the commercial tax office in Neyyattinkara, were on Tuesday convicted and sentenced by the Vigilance Court in Thiruvananthapuram for allegedly misappropriating advance tax on inter-state movement of goods, causing a loss of Rs 26.58 lakh to the exchequer.

Commissioner of Investigation and Special Judge (Vigilance) Manoj A. sentenced former junior superintendent L. Pushparani (58) and Satheesh Kumar (47), who allegedly acted as a middleman between traders and officials, to 32 years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹36,19911 each. K. Francis, 66, a businessman, was sentenced to eight years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined ₹6,11,560.

According to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), the case pertains to irregularities in payment of advance tax by traders engaged in inter-state trade in 2007-08. The accused allegedly conspired to use forged challans in which sums higher than what was actually paid into the treasury were entered in duplicate and triplicate.

Pushparani, who was responsible for verifying and certifying the tax amounts remitted to the treasury, allegedly facilitated the irregularities. Vigilance alleged that the manipulation of the guys allowed four business establishments to evade tax, resulting in a total loss of ₹26,58,595 to the government.

Thiruvananthapuram-I VACB Special Investigation Unit registered the case and filed the charge sheet after completion of investigation.

Published – 10 Nov 2026 22:24 IST