Near-zero charge sheets helping UPPCL collect more revenue
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a very dramatic drop in the filing of charge sheets in cases of electricity theft since the setting up of special anti-power theft police stations in the state around two years ago.
This is being seen as a very positive development helping the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) receive greater revenue in the form of compounding (court fee against the offence committed) and assessment (cost of electricity stolen by the culprit) on one hand, and saving courts from getting clogged with power theft cases on the other.
“We are moving fast towards achieving the target of zero charge sheets in power theft cases in UP with the help of the anti-power theft police stations and this is quite a big achievement,” Kamal Saksena, directorgeneral (vigilance), UPPCL, said, when contacted. “Our police personnel take the pain to convince power theft culprits to get their offence compounded or settled on the spot and get acquitted instead of doing the rounds of the court once the charge sheet is filed against them,” he added explaining.
A 1988 batch IPS officer, Saksena, was posted in UPPCL in April 2017 before serving as secretary,
home, for more than five years. He is said to be instrumental to the establishment of the special anti-power theft police stations one each in all the 75 districts in August, 2018.
“Not only has there been a drop in the number of submission of charge sheets and a corresponding increase in the final reports sent to the courts but the number of FIRs being filed has also gone up after anti-power theft police stations became operational,” Saksena said.
Information sourced from the UPPCL shows that in 2020 (from Jan to Dec) charge sheets were filed in only 990 cases which was just 4.35% against the disposal of 22,774 of the 1,76,007 FIRs registered during the year. Final reports were made in 21,784 cases which was 95.65%.
The number of charge sheets has further dropped in the current year. As many as 1,06,992
FIRs were registered from January till September 13 this year and charge sheets were filed only in nine of the 8,830 cases disposed, while in 8,810 cases, final reports were sent to the courts which meant 99.77% cases were closed after the accused agreed to get the offence compounded. Interestingly, the same information reveals that the number of charge sheets sent to court in 2019, 2018 and 2017 was as high as 49,863 (68.81%), 1,19,425 (68.52%) and 76,192 (67.23%), respectively while the final report submission was low at 39.19%, 31.48% and 32.77%, respectively. Power theft, like most traffic rule violations, is a compoundable offence in which an accused has the option of paying the compounding fee that goes to the government and the assessment money goes to UPPCL.
“If the consumer agrees to compounding, the police close the case immediately, otherwise, the charge sheet is sent to the court that can award an imprisonment up to a period of three years or fine or both,” Saksena said. In 2020, the vigilance wing recovered ₹13,36, 12,77 as compounding fee and ₹ 37,54,97,600 as assessment of power theft. “Earlier, a large part of this amount remained unrealised and stuck in courts due to filing of more charge sheets,” he said.