In Visakhapatnam, a CBI court has handed down a five-year jail term to a former Central Excise and Customs inspector and a private individual in a massive Rs 32.28 crore fraud case. The verdict came on Wednesday, bringing closure to a long-running investigation into corruption and smuggling tricks.
The convicted duo includes Kalaka Ramdas, who was an inspector with Central Excise and Customs in Srikakulam Range back in 2005. At that time, he was already climbing the ranks and later became a superintendent in Visakhapatnam. His partner in crime, Polaki Janakiram from Vandragi village in Srikakulam district, also got the same sentence. The court even slapped a Rs 5.53 lakh fine on both, along with a company they set up called Sri Balaji General Trading Company (SBGTC).
This whole scam kicked off in 2005 when the CBI registered a case on August 30 against Ramdas and Janakiram for criminal conspiracy to cheat the government. Janakiram pulled off a clever impersonation, posing as someone named Palla Kesava Rao—a person who didn’t even exist. Using fake signatures and forged documents, he registered SBGTC and got approvals for a trading license, import-export code, and even a warehousing spot under the Customs Act from VSEZ in Visakhapatnam.
Things got shadier from there. Janakiram, still pretending to be Kesava Rao, grabbed duty-free materials from three firms in Maligaon. He then imported more goods and cleared them fraudulently as “deemed exports” to companies in Mumbai, all using fake Advance Release Orders (AROs). This broke EXIM policy rules big time and involved Ramdas, who helped bend the rules as the inspector. In the end, they dodged Rs 32.28 crore in excise and customs duties, leaving the government high and dry.
The CBI wrapped up its probe and filed a chargesheet on August 29, 2008. After years in court, the judge’s gavel fell, and both Ramdas and Janakiram were packed off straight to Central Prison in Visakhapatnam. It’s a strong reminder of how agencies like CBI are cracking down on corruption in customs and excise fraud cases, ensuring no one gets away with big scams like this.
Stay informed on all the latest news, real-time breaking news updates, and follow all the important headlines in world News on Latest NewsX. Follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter(X), Gettr and subscribe our Youtube Channel.
