E-Paper
LESA bill revision scam: SIT begins investigation
The scam that took place between 2004 and 2008 in Lucknow was estimated to have had caused a revenue loss of more than ₹2.50 crore to UPPCL
More than 15 years after the electricity bill revision scam in the state capital hit the headlines, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of UP police has started probing the matter speedily putting many UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) engineers and other personnel on edge, people aware of the issue disclosed.
The fraud that took place primarily in the Residency and a few other divisions of the Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA) between 2004 and 2008 was estimated to have had caused a revenue loss of more than ₹2.50 crore to the UPPCL.
In the departmental inquiry conducted then, it was found that a large number of defaulters’ electricity arrears were illegally dropped out by manipulating the data of the LESA’s online billing system by hacking the main password. However, no one was punished then.
The SIT probe into the LESA’s bill revision racket now comes at a time when 23 UPPCL engineers and three clerks have recently been chargesheeted for committing serious irregularities in issuing temporary power connections of smaller loads for the construction of multi-storey apartments without any records of metering and billing to deliberately benefit builders in Noida and Greater Noida.
“The SIT has started investigation into the LESA’s bill revision racket on the directions issued to it by the home department and has written a letter to the Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (MVVNL) managing director seeking certain relevant details from him to get to the culprits,” a senior UPPCL official said.
In his correspondence with the MD on September 29, SIT superintendent of police (SP) Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj referred to the letter sent to him by special secretary, home (police section 3) on January 2, 2021.
The home department as the SP wrote in the letter, asked the SIT to identify the LESA officials, employees and consumers who caused around ₹2.50 crore loss to the UPPCL by washing out arrears from official records by manipulating LESA’s online billing data between 2004 and 2008. The SIT was given two weeks’ time to complete the probe.
The SIT has sought details regarding names of LESA divisions covered under the online billing system between 2004 and 2008 and the names and all other details of officials/employees who were posted there during the same period and also the details of private companies and their staff working for LESA then.
Reiterating the SIT’s letter, MVVNL director (commercial), Pradeep Kakkar sent a missive to both the chief engineers LESA (trans-Gomti and cis-Gomti) on October 6, asking them to ensure that the desired information was made available to the SIT immediately.
