In separate cases, the special court of electricity has convicted Om Prakash, a resident of Nangloi (West Delhi), and Shiv Mangal, a resident of Seelampur (East Delhi), of large scale power-theft and further distributing it to over 700 consumers in Bakkarwala, Nangloi and for industrial purposes.
Prakash has been sentenced to two years’ simple imprisonment (SI) and levied a penalty (fine+ civil liability) of Rs 57 lakh. In case of fine default, he will undergo additional jail-term of six months.
While Mangal was caught stealing over 30 KW by way of direct theft for industrial purposes. The BSES' inspection team accompanied by the Delhi Police raised power-theft bill of Rs 1.24 lakh, which was not paid by the accused.
Prakash was a single point distributor appointed before privatisation in Delhi. He had a sanctioned load of 300 KW to supply electricity (for domestic purposes) to the residents in the Bakkarwala area in Nangloi, West Delhi. Subsequently, he started illegally drawing over 900 KW and distributing it to over 700 residents. To camouflage the power theft, he had installed 'shunts' to tamper the meter on specific days of a month. During an inspection in 2007, the power theft came to light. Subsequently, according to the prevailing guidelines a bill of around Rs 35 lakh was
raised, which was never paid by him.
Thereafter, a notice was served on the accused under section 135/138 (ready with section 150) of the electricity act. The order of Naveen Arora (Additional sessions Judge), special Court of electricity, Dwarka said as per the records proved by the complainant (BSES), the convict was by-passing the metre for 20 days on an average in a month and was running the meter for 10 days only.
For this, he was getting a monthly bill of around Rs 1 lakh , meaning that for the remaining 20 days, the convict was committing theft of electricity.
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