QR-code related discrepancies on foreign liquor bottles in Greater Noida has landed employees of a premium alcohol store in jail, officials said on Thursday.
According to an Excise Department officer, the discrepancies were caught during a surprise inspection at the store located in Gaur City area of Greater Noida (West) also known as Noida Extension.
The department had got information about same unique Quick Response (QR) codes being used on multiple liquor bottles, leading to fraud with customers and loss of revenue to the state government, Excise Officer Rakesh Bahadur Singh said.
The incident was reported from a Premium Retail Shop (PRS) located at the Gaur City roundabout. There are 15 PRS in the district that have licenses for sale of premium foreign liquor costing around Rs 2,000 or more.
“We received inputs after which we conducted a checking. We realised that there was duplicacy and errors in scanning at this store. The shopkeepers were trying to reuse the QR codes by using the same label on multiple bottles and fooling consumers, as well as causing losses to the department,” Singh said.
The officer said that after the fraud was detected, the liquor store’s license has been suspended by the district magistrate and a show cause notice sent to the owner.
Based on the response, the department can decide to penalise or further cancel the shop’s license permanently, he added.
The employees arrested have been identified as Brajesh, Mohit and Shivkumar, all three natives of Bahraich district in UP, according to an official statement.
A case has been filed against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Excise Act, 1944, at the local Bisrakh police station, it added.
