Meter rigging racket: Role of power staff to be probed

In the last five years, over 3.30 lakh cases of electricity theft had been reported and now efforts are on to catch those within the department involved in the pilferage

LUCKNOW A number of LESA employees were under the scanner of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) after the UP STF on Sunday busted a gang engaged in rigging power meters across the state by using electronic chips and remote devices, indicating connivance of power staff in this fraudulent activity, said officials

Every year, power theft of ₹5,000 crore was reported across the state, as per the UPPCL. (Pic for representation)

“Some electronic devices were recovered from the arrested members of the gang,” said BS Khangaraut, MD, Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (MVVNL). He asked officials to form a team at the Madhyanchal headquarter level to probe how the meters were slowed down by the gang and whether there was any connivance of officers/employees of the corporation. The probe report would be submitted within a seven days, he added.

Five members of the gang were arrested from Lucknow’s Ashiana area, but the mastermind of the gang, Pawan Pal, known as ‘meter encyclopedia’ among his aides, was still at large, said a senior STF official.

He said information extracted from the arrested gang members suggested that Pawan Pal was a resident of West Bengal and possibly held a degree in electrical engineering. He said the probe revealed that Pawan used his skill in developing ways to slow down electric meters through different techniques.

The UPPCL was gathering details of power employees involved in the fraud while a list of power consumers suspected of tampering meters was also being prepared.

In the last five years, over 3.30 lakh cases of electricity theft had been reported and now efforts were on to catch those within the department involved in the pilferage in any way. Every year, power theft of ₹5,000 crore was reported across the state, as per the UPPCL.

A UPPCL official said, “When the STF and UPPCL team raided a house in Ashiana area, they came across a big lab where 578 electric digital meters, over 200 syringes, 539 chips and 65 remote controls were found. The work of fitting chips in smart meters and connecting them with remote controls was done on a large scale. And such a scale of power pilferage with technical accuracy is not possible without the involvement of insiders of the department.”

The ‘meter encyclopedia’ gang was operational for the last seven years and used to slow down meters installed in commercial installations and houses. They mainly focussed on small units that often agreed with their offer of slowing down meters to reduce electricity bills, said the STF official. But the gang was noticed when a member randomly called a senior official of the electricity department around five months ago and offered the ‘slowdown service’ at ₹5,000, he added.

These fraudsters caused revenue loss of several crores to the state government in the past few years by providing ‘meter slowdown facility’ to thousands of consumers after rigging meters.

He said the STF had been tracking the gang since then and finally unearthed it with the arrest of five people - Satish Sharma, Ali Umar, Arjun Prasad, Sonu Pal aka Samir Pal and Raman Gautam.

A UPPCL official said the gang members used to search for their targets (customers) outside electricity sub-stations. The customers were lured to commit the crime (slowing down meters) with the promise that their bills would be curtailed significantly.

“We are also studying the gang’s modus operandi. We have come to know that before tampering the meter, they used to pour acid into it with a syringe in order to open the meter easily,” he added.

UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avadhesh Varma said, “Around 1.20 lakh million units of electricity is being purchased annually in the state at a cost of around ₹62,000 crore. In this, electricity theft is around 20%, which is shown as distribution loss. Power worth more than ₹5,000 crore is being stolen annually. We want the UPPCL to act strictly against the gang and not harass consumers in the name of survey of meters as it will open a new door of corruption.”