Thiruvananthapuram: A vigilance court on Tuesday sentenced a former junior superintendent of the commercial taxes department and an intermediary to 32 years of rigorous imprisonment each in a tax fraud case that caused a loss of Rs 26.58 lakh to the state govt.Pushparani L (58), former junior superintendent at the Neyyattinkara commercial taxes office, and Satheesh Kumar (47), who acted as an intermediary between traders and officials, were also fined Rs 11,36,193 each.Francis K (66), a trader from Kanyakumari, was sentenced to eight years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 6,11,560.The case involved manipulation of advance tax payment records for interstate trade during 2007-08. The accused conspired to alter duplicate and triplicate copies of treasury challans to show payments higher than the amounts actually deposited by traders.Pushparani, who was responsible for verifying tax payments, facilitated the fraud, while Satheesh acted as an intermediary. The manipulation enabled four business establishments to evade tax, causing a loss of Rs 26,58,595 to govt.The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau’s Thiruvananthapuram special investigation unit-I investigated the case and filed the chargesheet. Vigilance court judge Manoj A pronounced the verdict. The judgment stated that the sentences could be served concurrently.