Electricity theft: 75-year-old handed 3-year jail term by Delhi court, fined Rs 17 lakh
The judge, in his order, observed that the theft of electricity is an economic offence whereby the society as a whole is a victim and it is not an offence committed against any particular individual.
The Judicial Magistrate First Class court held Jagbir Singh guilty under section 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the convict. (File/Representational) Observing that society as a whole is a victim in cases of electricity thefts, a Delhi court has recently sentenced a 75-year-old man to three years of rigorous imprisonment after he was convicted of powering his house by illegally tapping electricity.
The convict, Harbhajan Singh, a resident of west Delhi’s Vishnu Garden area was accused by the police of illegally tapping electricity from the input terminals of a meter and “feeding the entire load of the premises through illegal wires” in 2015.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 17, 20,054 on the convict.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinay Singhal in his order passed on January 20 said, “the theft of electricity is an economic offence whereby the society as a whole is a victim and it is not an offence committed against any particular individual.”
“The reason is quite obvious that the honest members of the society, who are using electricity through legal means and are regularly making payment of their electricity bills, are the sufferers at the hands of such dishonest persons like the present convict, who is getting an undue advantage by stealing the electricity through illegal means at the cost of legitimate consumers of electricity who have to bear the cost of electricity theft,” the order read.
The court also said that the “theft of electricity, at times, not only puts the life of convict and his family members at risk, but it also causes danger to the safety and life of other persons also.”
His lawyer, V K Goel, pleaded for a lenient sentence stating that his client was suffering from various age-related diseases, was the sole breadwinner of the family, and should be given an opportunity to reform himself.
Additional Public Prosecutor Binay Kumar that no leniency should be shown to the convict as he was involved in the direct theft of electricity and there was a need to send a strong message to such offenders.
The court said that the convict has “failed to furnish any explanation or the compelling circumstances which forced him to indulge into direct theft of electricity. This is more so when there was an electricity meter already installed in the subject premises.”
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