Court orders man to cough up Rs 1.48 cr penalty for power theft

A special court has slapped a whopping penalty of Rs 1.48 crore on a city resident for stealing 243 KW of electricity for running a plastic factory in west Delhi’s Tagore garden area, and awarded a rigorous imprisonment of two years.

Power theft remains a menace in several parts of Delhi, resulting in substantial revenue loss to the discoms, and has also increased the number of trippings and local breakdowns manifold. In case of default, he will undergo a further simple imprisonment of six months, as per the judgement by the Special Court of Electricity, Dwarka, the BSES said in a statement on Monday. 

“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 Rs 1,48,61,194 and in default of payment of time to undergo SI for six months,” Additional Sessions Judge Gulshan Kumar said in a statement.