Resident of high-rise thrashed by security guards over power bill; five arrested

A 33-year-old resident of a high-rise in Sector 121 was allegedly thrashed by over 20 security guards when he visited the maintenance office of the society to seek

A 33-year-old resident of a high-rise in Sector 121 was allegedly thrashed by over 20 security guards when he visited the maintenance office of the society to seek clarification on his “inflated” power bill.

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Shaleen Mathur, a resident of Cleo County, received injuries to his neck, chest and back in the incident that took place on Wednesday afternoon, the police said. An FIR in the case was registered on Thursday.

Mathur said he usually receives a power bill for about 550 units per month. “Last month we received a bill for 1,177 units. This was surprising as we had relatively less power consumption in September,” he said.

Mathur, an electronics engineer, said that he had sent an email to the maintenance department seeking a correction in the inflated bill. “I did not receive any response from the maintenance department of the society. On Wednesday afternoon, I went there to discuss the issue. But the security in-charge, Arvind Kumar, the project in-charge, Salekh Chand, and one Vinod Das called about 20-30 security personnel who thrashed me and ousted me from the office,” he alleged.

Mathur also alleged that his clothes were ripped apart during the incident. “Some society residents reached the spot and rescued me,” he said. The maintenance office is on the society campus.

According to Mathur, a number of residents had gathered and protested against the incident. He filed a complaint against the maintenance department and security guards at Phase 3 police station.

Harish Chander, deputy commissioner of police, Noida Central, said a case has been registered against three named persons and 20 to 30 security guards under sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

“Police have arrested five security guards involved in the incident. We will also recommend licence cancellation of the security agency,” Chander said.

Arvind Kumar, security head at the society, claimed that Mathur had first manhandled the maintenance officials which led to the incident.

A spokesperson for ABA Corp, the developer of Cleo County, said that the company has terminated the services of Chand and Arvind. “We have also given instructions to facility management and security agency to identify all the staff members involved in the incident and terminate their services with immediate effect,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Mathur also alleged that a few days ago a maintenance department staffer had visited him to offer a deal. “He had asked me to pay ₹2,000 monthly and he would tamper the power meter and fix the bill. To check this, I asked him to fix it for five days. He had fixed my meter and there was no increase in power units for five days,” he said. Mathur said that this is when he suspected he was getting inflated bills on behalf of other residents due to tampering in their meters.

However, Deepak Arora, assistant property manager, Cleo County, denied the allegation. “We have digital meters, which are tamperproof,” he said.

The society has 2,600 flats in 22 towers, out of them 1,500 flats are occupied.