17 Gurugram police officials were caught indulging in power theft during a surprise raid by the State Electricity Board's (SEB) Vigilance Department in the Police Lines area on Tuesday morning and their power connections cut.
A formal complaint has also been sent to Gurugram Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar in this regard.
The Gurugram Police Department is worried as more cops are likely to be exposed during further investigations.
The power department officials also seized seven electricity metres that were found tampered and sent them for testing.
This is the first time that a raid of this kind has been conducted on city cops.
Officials of the electricity board Vigilance Department began the raids at 6 am on Tuesday and continued them for more than five hours.
During the exercise, electricity board officials examined more than 500 houses of police officials.
"Our officials conducted a raid after receiving complaints from various sources of power thefts that were occurring in the Police Lines area. As we had to conduct a raid on the police officials, we had to carry out a thorough examination before we carried out the raid," said an official of the SEB, who was present during the raid..
The official further added: "During the raid, we found that as many as 17 city policemen were receiving direct power connections without electricity metres as they had by-passed the power connections. We have also taken possession of seven electricity metres that were found tampered."
"Notices have been served by the Electricity Department to the city police officials who were caught stealing power. The complaints have also been forwarded to senior police authorities," the official said.
He also stated that the "guilty" policemen will have to pay a fine based on the losses incurred by the Electricity Department, failing which further action will be pursued against them.
The issue of power theft is a big challenge for Electricity Board in the city, which recently stated that it was facing major losses due to massive power thefts.
Besides payment of hefty fines, according to the law there is also a provision for three years' imprisonment for power theft.