A West Delhi resident has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for two years and slapped with Rs 1.48 crore fine by the Special Court of Electricity, Dwarka for power theft. In the event of further default, the Tagore Garden resident will undergo another six months of simple imprisonment.
The order of Gulshan Kumar (Additional Sessions Judge, Special Court of Electricity, Dwarka) said, “The penalty should not be less than three times the financial gain on account of theft of liability. Hence, convict Ranjit Singh Chaudhary is sentenced to undergo RI for two years and to pay fine of Rs 1,48,61,194 and in default of payment on time, he will undergo simple imprisonment for 6 months”.
“The convict is also liable to pay civil liability U/s 154 (5) of the Act so amount of civil liability shall be paid to the complainant towards satisfaction of the civil liability, out of fine,” the order further stated. “The bill is raised on the basis of consumption for a period of 12 months multiplied by two times of the applicable tariff rate. Accordingly, the civil liability on the basis of the then tariff rate is assessed at Rs 99, 07,463,” stated the order.
Notably, earlier, convict Chaudhary was caught stealing a whopping 243 KW of electricity for running a plastic factory at Golden Park, Rampura, Tagore Garden. “No electricity meter was found at site. The entire electricity load of the factory (running under the name HP Plastic) was being stolen using 8 Teflon wires,” the official statement of power department stated.
“When he did not pay the amount within the mandated time frame, an FIR was registered against him U/s 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 and a criminal case filed. With the help of several witnesses and MCD records, the company was able to prove that Chaudhary was indeed owner of the factory and he had been granted a license for doing business of plastic goods at the said premises,” stated a release by the discom supplying power in West Delhi.