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Ajay joshi
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 12
The enforcement wing of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), Jalandhar, on Sunday caught three of its employees for electricity theft and meter tampering. A case has been registered at the anti-power theft police station of the district.
The accused have been identified as Harinder Singh (supervisor) , Kuldeep Singh and Rajiv Mehta, who were working as meter readers with an outsourced electricity firm (Sterling Transformers) engaged in spot billing of consumers in North Zone of PSPCL and Inderjit Bajaj, a complaint handling bike (CHB) operator. Deputy Chief Engineer Enforcement Wing Rajit Sharma said all the accused had been sacked from their services. The anti-power theft police station of PSPCL has registered an FIR against them under Sections 135 and 138 of the Indian Electricity Act. 2003.
Modus Operandi
Electricity meters of one meter supervisor of the outsourced company and one complaint handling employee were found damaged by using the same method.
A complaint was received by the enforcement wing officials that few of its outsourced meter readers were indulged in electricity theft and were also conniving with consumers for tampering their electricity meters. Subsequently, a team led by Sukhpal Singh, senior executive engineer, kept a close tab on the accused and caught them red-handed.
The modus operandi used by the meter readers involved damaging the display of the meters by supplying high voltage into them that would eventually remove the electricity readings available on the meter display. Thereafter they used to fill any arbitrary consumption units while generating the monthly bill and extracted money from the consumers by suppressing their actual meter readings. Electricity meters of one meter supervisor of the outsourced company and one complaint handling employee were found damaged by using the same method.
Doctor booked for taking bribe for jobs in PSPCL
The enforcement wing of the PSPCL also unearthed a gang involved in extracting money for recruitment of meter readers for the outsourced company Sterling Transformers. The enforcement wing received a complaint from an aggrieved person that a doctor, identified as Deepa Yadav, was extracting money from innocent people for recruiting them in Sterling Transformers. It was alleged that she had contacts with the officials of PSPCL as well. The investigating officer of enforcement, Sukhpal Singh, Sr. XEN, managed to grab an audio clip wherein the lady doctor was allegedly admitting of accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from a resident of Jalandhar for his recruitment as meter reader. The meter reader was later found involved in unscrupulous activities like tempering of meters. The PSPCL has referred the case to the anti-power theft police station for further investigation.
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