Daijiworld Media Network - Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam, Sep 17: A CBI court in Visakhapatnam has sentenced a former Customs and Central Excise official and a private individual to five years of rigorous imprisonment for their involvement in a massive Rs 32.28 crore fraud, dating back nearly two decades.

Kalaka Ramdas, who was an Inspector in the Central Excise & Customs Department at Srikakulam Range during the time of the offence, and Polaki Janakiram, a private individual from Vandrangi village in Srikakulam district, were convicted for criminal conspiracy, impersonation, and large-scale cheating of the Customs and Excise Departments.

At the time the chargesheet was filed in 2008, Ramdas had been promoted to Superintendent in the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise, Visakhapatnam.

According to a statement issued by the CBI on Wednesday, Janakiram—impersonating a fictitious individual named Palla Kesava Rao—fraudulently established a fake firm under the name Sri Balaji General Trading Company (SBGTC). He used forged documents and fake signatures to obtain approvals from the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ) and the Central Excise Department, including licenses for trading and import-export, as well as approval to designate a warehouse under the Customs Act.

Using this bogus setup, Janakiram procured duty-free goods from suppliers in Maligaon and through imports, and then illicitly cleared the materials to companies in Mumbai as "deemed exports" using forged Advance Release Orders (AROs). This was done in blatant violation of the EXIM Policy, in criminal conspiracy with Ramdas and others, resulting in an estimated loss of Rs 32.28 crore in unpaid customs and excise duties.

Following an investigation launched on August 30, 2005, the CBI filed its chargesheet on August 29, 2008, charging the duo and the fictitious company under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Customs and Excise laws.

Along with the prison sentence, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 5.53 lakh on the convicts and the company.

After the court pronounced its verdict, both Kalaka Ramdas and Polaki Janakiram were taken into custody and sent to Central Prison, Visakhapatnam to serve their sentence.