Two persons in Ranga Reddy district and one in the city have been booked under provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003, for indulging in power theft, and remanded to judicial custody here on Tuesday.
The Vigilance and Anti Power Theft Squad of the APCPDCL, acting in coordination with the Operations circle staff, registered cases under section 135 (a) of the Act for stealing power, against Kompally Ravi and K. Narayana, both residents of Keshavaram village of Shamirpet mandal in Ranga Reddy district, a press communiqué from the Vigilance wing of the APCPDCL informed. On December 4, during the special drive conducted by the Vigilance wing, both the accused were found tapping power directly from the overhead LT conductors, to run pump-sets for sand filtering.
Second offence
For both, this is the second such offence in three months.
On earlier occasions, their offences were compounded upon payment of requisite amounts.
After the latest instance, they were both arrested, produced before the Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate, Cyberabad, Medchal, and sent to judicial remand.
In another incident in Langar Houz, one Hussain Shah Ali, a Class IV employee of Nizam College, was booked by the Vigilance and APTF team, allegedly for tampering the electricity meter a second time.
In judicial custody
He was booked under sections 135(a) and 138 of the Electricity Act, produced before the Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Nampally, and remanded to judicial custody, the press release informed.
The APCPDCL has apparently toughened its stance against power theft, as evident from the recent spate of criminal cases being slapped on the offenders across the State.
Special drive
During the last one month, about 50 to 60 theft cases have been booked by the Vigilance and APTF wings as part of the special drive against habitual offenders, officials informed.
“We compound the offence upon payment of requisite penalty if it is a first time offence. If the person is found to be committing the same offence again, we are entitled by the Electricity Act, to register a case against him,” said K. Muralidhar Rao, Chief Vigilance Officer, APCPDCL.
Sources informed that the drive is being conducted at the behest of the company’s CMD S.A.M. Rizvi, who reportedly asked the officials to crack down upon the second-time offenders so as to serve a warning to others.
Inspections are now being conducted on the premises of all the first-time offenders to see if they continue to steal power, an official informed.
