Industrialist fined Rs 1.09cr, gets 3 yrs jail for power theft

Five persons, including three industrialists and the landlady of a tailoring unit, have been fined a total of around Rs 1.30 crore and handed jail terms for electricity theft.
"In three separate cases, three industrialists - one in East Delhi and two in West Delhi, and the owner of a tailoring unit and his landlady in South Delhi have been convicted for power theft by the Special Courts of Electricity in East, West and South Delhi. Cumulatively, they have been fined around Rs 1.30 crore," said a statement from the discom, BSES.
While the East Delhi industrialist has been fined Rs 1.09 crore and awarded rigorous imprisonment (RI) of three years, the owner of the South Delhi-based tailoring unit and his landlady have been fined Rs 4.60 lakh and sentenced to one year's RI.

The two West Delhi industrialists have been fined around Rs 16 lakh and would face six months' simple imprisonment in case they failed to pay the penalty, it said.
Mukesh Gupta, who has a wire factory in Gokulpuri in East Delhi, was found stealing over 102 KW of electricity during an inspection by the enforcement team of BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) in 2006.
"An electricity meter was found installed at the premises, but Gupta was stealing electricity for industrial purposes by tapping into the nearby BSES LV mains.

"A fine was imposed in the case. When he failed to pay the fine within the stipulated timeframe, a case was filed," a BSES spokesperson said.

In the case of the West Delhi industrialists, Ramesh Chand Mudgil and Allimuddin, the enforcement team of BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) in 2008 had found their fabrication unit in Om Vihar in Uttam Nagar running on stolen electricity.
"It was being run on 16.6 KW of stolen electricity by bypassing the electricity meter," he said.
In the third case, the owner of a large tailoring unit at Khanpur, and his landlady, were fined Rs 4.6 lakh (Civil Liability, Rs 1.84 lakh plus Fine, Rs 2.76 lakh) and one years' rigorous imprisonment.
BRPL in 2008 had found them stealing 9.2 KW by illegally tapping into BSES' HVDS system in the area, he said.