Bhairahawa, September 11 The Inland Revenue Office of Bhairahawa has slapped punishment on persons involved in the fake excise duty sticker fraud perpetrated by Janakpur-based Sangrila Distillery Pvt Ltd. Six persons, including two Indian nationals, namely the distillery operator Kusheshwor Prasad Sah, staff Kameshwor Mahato, Bhawani Prasad Upreti, Mohammad Alam Gaddhi, and Binod Kumar Singh and Samasuddhin Musalman of India have been convicted in the case. While Sah, Gaddhi, Singh and Mahato have been slapped with Rs 20.92 million fine and one year prison term each, Musalman and Upreti each were told to pay 10.46 million rupees in fine and spend six months in prison. The revenue office has decided to scrap the licence of the distillery. “The verdict was taken by using the powers given to the revenue office by the Excise Duty Act 2058,” said chief tax officer Arjun Dhakal, who issued the verdict. Earlier, police in March had seized some 400,000 fake stickers from Bhairahawa. The stickers were being brought to Nepal after being printed in India. A probe revealed Sangrila Distillery’s involvement in the fraud.