Man held for running electricity bill racket

Mahavitaran officers, who came across the fraud while conducting a check on all outstanding bill payments, uncovered that the accused, Vijay Mukund Parab, was allegedly running an unauthorised centre for collecting electricity bills, and issuing fake receipts in exchange.

A man, 45, was arrested here on Saturday on charges of running an unauthorised centre for electricity bills.

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Mahavitaran officers, who came across the fraud while conducting a check on all outstanding bill payments, uncovered that the accused, Vijay Mukund Parab, was allegedly running an unauthorised centre for collecting electricity bills, and issuing fake receipts in exchange. Prima facie, the fraud amounts to to nearly Rs 2 lakh, police said.

Parab ran a centre called Om Ganesh Enterprise, offering private tuitions. At the centre, Parab allegedly also had a facility for payment of electricity bills. Parab would issue a fake receipt for the payment.

“In September,Mahavitaran officers went to the homes of consumers who had not paid their bills. Some consumers claimed to have paid the electricity bill and showed us the receipt. However, their payment entry was missing from our official records,” said Ganesh Tukaram Pachpohe, Deputy Engineer, Mahavitaran.

The Mahavitaran officers took photocopies of the bill and found out the fraud. “The accused would use the most recent bill receipt of the consumer, and issue a new one on the same format. He changed the bill amount and the payment date, but the receipt number remained the same,” Pachpohe added.

Police inspector Chandrakant Deshmukh, Vithalwadi police station said: “ The police arrested Parab and produced him in the Ulhasnagar court, remanded him in police custody for three days.