Power theft detected at a Lahore hotel, Rs7m fine imposed on owner

LAHORE: Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has detected pilferage on an electricity connection of a nine-storey hotel ‘Relax Inn’, owned by Basharat Muhammad, in the area of Davis Road Sub-Division.

Under the supervision of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Engineer Shahid Haider, the operation against electricity thieves is going on successfully. In this regard, Basharat Muhammad, the owner of the nine-storey “Relax Inn” hotel, was caught stealing electricity while checking by LESCO inspection team in the area of Davis Road Subdivision.

Accused Basharat Mohammad was stealing electricity from LESCO’s direct supply by hooking wires and had caused loss of millions of rupees to the power distribution company.

The accused was using stolen electricity for 27 ACs (air-conditioners) installed in the hotel. LESCO teams seized the wires used in electricity theft and got registered a case against the accused and got him arrested by the police.

The hotel owner was also fined Rs 7 million in the form of detection bill. It has been learnt that accused Basharat Muhammad has more hotels in different areas of Lahore, the checking process of which has been started.

LESCO CEO Engineer Shahid Haider said that indiscriminate action against electricity thieves would continue and they would be brought to justice.

He further said that Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) detected a total of 407 connections from where the customers were pilfering electricity in all its circles of five districts (Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur and Okara) on the 31st day of the grand anti-power theft campaign.

The LESCO Chief Executive Officer (CEO) told that the company has also so far submitted FIR applications against 405 electricity thieves, out of which 193 FIRs have been registered in respective police stations, while 43 accused have been arrested.

The LESCO chief vowed that the operations would continue without discrimination until the complete end of electricity theft. The electricity pilferers, as well as, the LESCO officers and employees who facilitate them are also being brought to justice.

On the 31st consecutive day (Oct. 08) of the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, large agricultural and commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft and all of them were also disconnected and charged with detection units.

Among the seized connections were 03 industrial, 18 commercial, 09 agricultural and 377 domestic consumers, and all these connections were disconnected and charged with a total of 1,458,233 units as detection bill amounting to Rs 36.535 million.

He explained that LESCO charged Rs 4.928 million detection bill against 88,000 units to an electricity pilferer on Davis Road Lahore; Rs 1.1 million fine in the form of detection bill against 13,825 units to another customer stealing electricity in Saleem Garden area of Shahdara; Rs 726,912 detection bill against 30,288 units to a power thief in Sara-i-Mughal; and Rs 500,000 as detection bill against 10,638 units to an electricity thief in Hanjarwal area of Lahore.

During the 31 days of grand anti-theft campaign, the spokesman mentioned, the LESCO detected pilferage on 14,690 power connections and submitted 14,556 FIR applications against electricity thieves in the relevant police stations out of which 13,599 FIRs have been registered, while 4,791 accused have so far been arrested by the police.

The LESCO has so far charged a total of 30,985,410 detection units worth Rs 1,373,010,597 billion to all the power pilferers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023