Power theft detected at hotel; owner fined Rs7m

LAHORE : Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has detected pilferage on an electricity connection of a nine-storey hotel in the area of Davis Road Sub-Division.

The Lesco spokesman told media here Sunday that under the supervision of CEO Engineer Shahid Haider, the operation against electricity thieves is going on successfully. In this regard, Basharat Muhammad, the owner of the 9-storey ‘Relax Inn’ hotel, was caught stealing electricity while checking by Lesco inspection team in the area of Davis Road sub-division. Accused was stealing electricity from Lesco's direct supply by hooking wires and 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, he said, adding that 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 Rs7 million in the form of detection bill.

It has been learnt that he has more hotels in different areas of Lahore, the checking process of which has been started.

Lesco CEO said that indiscriminate action against electricity thieves would be continued and they would be brought to justice.

Lesco detected 407 power pilferers on 31st day of anti-power theft campaign 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 spokesman told media here Sunday that the company has 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.

On Sunday, 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, and all these connections were disconnected and charged with a total of 1,458,233 units as detection bill amounting to Rs36.535 million.

He explained that Lesco charged Rs4.928 million detection bill against 88,000 units to an electricity pilferer on Davis Road Lahore, Rs1.1 million fine as detection bill against 13,825 units to another customer stealing electricity in Saleem Garden area of Shahdara, Rs726,912 detection bill against 30,288 units to a power thief in Sara-i-Mughal, and Rs500,000 as detection bill against 10,638 units to an electricity thief in Hanjarwal area of Lahore.