Visakhapatnam, Sep 17 (IANS) A CBI Court here has sentenced a former inspector of Central Excise & Customs and a private person to five years in jail in a Rs 32.28 crore fraud case.

The court convicted and sentenced Kalaka Ramdas, the then Inspector, Central Excise & Customs, Srikakulam Range, Srikakulam and a private person, Polaki Janakiram.

The case was registered in 2005, and at the time of filing the charge sheet in 2008, Ramdas was Superintendent, Customs & Central Excise in the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise, Visakhapatnam.

The CBI said in a statement on Wednesday that the court also convicted Janakiram, of Vandragi village of Srikakulam district and a private entity, Sri Balaji General Trading Company. The court also imposed a total fine of Rs 5.53 lakh on them.

The CBI had registered a case on August 30, 2005, for criminal conspiracy to cheat Excise and Customs. Jankiram impersonated as Palla Kesava Rao, and they established the accused firm in the name of SBGTC (Sri Balaji General Trading Company). Janakiram, by impersonating as Kesava Rao and by forging the signatures in the name of the non-existent Kesava Rao, applied to VSEZ, Visakhapatnam, for a trading license and an import and export code, and also applied to the Central Excise for declaring the premises as a Warehousing Station under the Customs Act.

According to the CBI, Janakiram by impersonating as Kesava Rao procured duty free materials from the three firms at Maligaon and also by import and fraudulently cleared them as deemed export to the three firms at Mumbai against Advance Release Orders (AROs) in violation of EXIM Policy guidelines in conspiracy with the accused public servant namely K. Ramdas, the then Inspector, Central Excise & Customs, Srikakulam Range, Srikakulam, and others and thereby cheated Excise and Customs Duty of Rs 32.28 crore on the procured materials.

After completion of the investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet on August 29, 2008. The Central agency said after the pronouncement of judgement, convicts Kalaka Ramdas and Polaki Janakiram were sent to Central Prison, Visakhapatnam.

–IANS

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