{
  "id": 19362889,
  "title": "Three persons convicted in ₹26.58-lakh commercial tax fraud case in Keralam",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/10/three-persons-convicted-in-26-58-lakh-commercial-tax-fraud-case-in",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-10T16:54:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu",
    "slug": "the-hindu",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/three-persons-convicted-in-2658-lakh-commercial-tax-fraud-case-in-keralam/article71686804.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Three individuals, a former junior superintendent of the Commercial Taxes Office and two traders, were convicted by the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court on Tuesday for a commercial tax fraud case involving a loss of ₹26.58 lakh to the State exchequer. Former junior superintendent L. Pushparani, 58, Satheesh Kumar, 47, and K. Francis, 66, were sentenced to 32 years, eight years, and eight years of rigorous imprisonment respectively, with fines of ₹11,36,193 and ₹6,11,560 each. The prosecution alleges that the trio conspired to misuse forged challans to evade taxes, enabling four business establishments to avoid paying the correct amount and causing a total loss of ₹26,58,595 to the government. The inquiry was conducted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), which registered the case and filed charges against the accused following a thorough investigation.",
  "summary": "The case relates to irregularities in the payment of advance tax by traders engaged in interstate commerce during 2007-08",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}