Gang cheating power dept busted, one held

The gang tampered with meters of defaulters, lowering readings and causing loss of crores to the power department

LUCKNOW: With the arrest of one person, the Sarojini Nagar police on Monday busted a gang involved in fleecing the electricity department.

The gang comprises five meter readers and a private technician. While the technician has been arrested, the meter readers are at large. Cops also recovered 33 meters, seven remote controls and 25 meter reading chips.

The gang was active for the past several years and has caused a loss of over several croers to the electricity department.

However, five meter readers of four power houses- Indira Nagar (sector 25), Talkatora, Ashiana and Aishbagh- involved in the illegal activity, are still absconding.

The arrested person has been identified as Pawan Kumar Pal, a resident of Ashiana area. The Sarojini Nagar police arrested him from a service lane in Shaheed Path on Monday morning.

Those absconding have been identified as meter readers Sarvesh and Gyanchandra of Indira Nagar power house (sector 25), Jamal Ahmad of Talkatora, Pappu Maurya of Ashiana and AK Tripathi of Aishbagh.

According to reports, the five meter readers used to dismantle the meters of from houses of consumers who were defaulters and had electricity bills of over several thousands or lakhs were pending. On papers, these meters were shown as faulty.

Thereafter, the meter readers called Pawan Kumar Pal, a private technician, at their respective power houses for tampering with meters they had dismantled from houses of consumers.

Pal rolled back opened the seals and rolled back readings of these meters with the help of meter reading chips.

On the basis of these deflated readings, new electricity bills of consumers were prepared. By this process, pending electricity dues of consumers were reduced to just several thousand rupees.

“In the past several years, these meter readers have caused

loss of several crores to the electricity department. By rolling back meter readings, they used to deflate pending electricity bills of consumers from several lakhs to just a few thousand. For this process, they used to charge commission of a few thousand from consumers,” said DK Shahi, station house officer, Sarojini Nagar.

“After we got information about this gang from informers, a police team was tasked with the responsibility of arresting them. The private technician has been arrested and sent to jail while five meter readers are still absconding,” said Shahi. They would be arrested soon, he added.

The Sarojini Nagar police have also informed the electricity department about these five meter readers.