Uttar Pradesh: Rs2.97cr penalty slapped on oil mill owner for power pilferage

In a case of power theft, the court of Special Judge (Essential Commodities) imposed penalty of Rs 2.97 crore on industrialist Dinanath Jhunjhunwala. In case of non-payment of the penalty amount, he will stay in jail for two years. The case of power theft was detected in 2007.

Providing details of the judgement, Special Public Prosecutor (Electricity) Dinesh Chandra Pandey said on Wednesday that with completion of the trial, Special Judge (Essential Commodities Act) Sandhya Srivastava found Dinanath Jhunjhunwala of Nati Imli area under Jaitpura police station guilty of electricity theft on Tuesday and imposed a fine of Rs 2,97,58,827. Failure to pay the fine will result in two years of simple imprisonment, contained the judgment.

Pandey said electricity department raided Jhunjhunwala Oil Mill in Ashapur on Jun 11, 2007 and detected power pilferage. The then executive engineer of Urban Electricity Distribution Division VI, Sankat Haran Singh, lodged FIR with Sarnath police station.

In his report submitted by Singh on Jun 11, 2007, it was stated that Jhunjhunwala oil mill was sanctioned a load of 200 KVA at 11,000 volts. However, the accused were operating beyond the approved load, and an 11 KV CTPT was found installed for effective control within the premises. A connected electrical load of 395 horsepower (294.57 kilowatts) was found against the sanctioned 200 KVA load. After completing the investigation, Sarnath Police submitted a final report before the court on Jul 10, 2007, giving a clean chit to the accused, Dinanath Jhunjhunwala, his son Vishwanath and grandson Ashutosh Jhunjhunwala.

However, the court rejected this final report on May 10, 2010, and summoned all three accused for trial. Subsequently, the trial against the three accused began on Mar 30, 2015. As Vishwanath Jhunjhunwala died, the proceedings against him were terminated. The prosecution produced five witnesses, including the complainant, with documentary evidence.

Meanwhile, the accused, Dinanath Jhunjhunwala and Ashutosh Jhunjhunwala, denied the electricity department’s allegations, arguing they were not directors of the firm at that time and had not committed any electricity theft. They claimed they had been accused wrongly.

But, after hearing the arguments and reviewing the records, court found Dinanath Jhunjhunwala guilty, while his grandson, Ashutosh Jhunjhunwala, was acquitted.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.