P’kula power utility’s staffer booked for embezzling ₹1.6 cr

Allegedly issued bogus receipts, deleted entries of bill receipts and did not deposit cash received from consumers to the corporation’s account

Police have booked a man working as a meter reader at Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) in Barwala for allegedly embezzling at least ₹1.6 crore by fudging records pertaining to power bills. A complaint in this regard was submitted by Barwala sub-division officer (SDO) Gopal Krishan against the accused identified as Gaurav Kumar, a resident of Kurukshetra.

The SDO, in his complaint, submitted that Kumar who was wilfully absent from duty since November 7, 2019, was assigned the duty of counter cashier from April 2018 to October 2019. The official stated that after joining the office on January 21 this year, he found that when Kumar was posted as a counter cashier, he had committed several irregularities. “He had deleted the entries of bill receipts from the corporation’s cash counter and computer software, issued bogus receipts and not deposited the cash received from consumers against their bills, thereby causing a huge loss of revenue to the discom,” read the FIR.

Police said as per the SDO, the data of cancelled receipts of bills to the tune of ₹1.6 crore was collected from the computer installed for cash collection. It was further stated that some consumers had submitted the fake receipts handed over to them by the accused but on checking the credit card receipt (CCR) numbers for these, it was found that no entry of the amount prescribed in the receipts was entered in CCR by him.