NEW DELHI: A joint team of the Delhi police and power distribution company BSES claims to have detected "direct theft" of over 178 KW of power at Kamal restaurant in Anand Parbat which is now called Gaurav Palace. Besides, they also detected power theft at 36 shops authorised by Municipal Corporation of Delhi at Karol Bagh besides a 48-room hotel there.

As for the raid at Kamal restaurant, BSES said, "this is not the first time this 45-room hotel with a bar and a restaurant has been on the wrong side of the law''. A few days earlier, BSES had disconnected electricity to the restaurant for non-payment of dues totalling about Rs. 64 lakhs.

This time, acting on a tip-off, a joint team of the Delhi police and BSES raided the hotel. Narrating the sequence of events, a BSES official said: "The hotel management tried to deceive the raiding party by claiming that they were running 24 x 7 on their generators and not stealing any electricity. Not convinced, BSES team switched off the electricity on the nearby LV mains - plunging the hotel into complete darkness and thus exposing the power theft.''

The official added that the hotel was illegally drawing power from three lines, of which two were unscrupulously drawing from two different LV mains. Since "the 45-room hotel was cooled with the aid of 17 air-conditioners and a cooling tower and in addition had 29 geysers and a plethora of electricity appliances, a penalty of over Rs. 54 lakhs has been slapped on the hotel in addition to the pending dues".

In Karol Bagh, one of the busiest commercial hubs of Delhi, BSES enforcement teams raided 36 shops and a large 48-room hotel and found them all blatantly stealing power.

"Of the 36 shops raided, not one was found to be having an electricity meter and all were found to be hooking power from the nearby BSES LV mains,'' said a shocked official, adding that these shops were cumulatively engaged in power theft of over 50 KW worth nearly Rs 20 lakhs. "These shops will be charged a penalty 30 times their connected load in accordance with the provisions laid in the Electricity Act, 2003,'' the official said.

As at Anand Parbat, in Karol Bagh too BSES detected a hotel, Sahni Guest House, catering mainly to low-budget foreign travellers, stealing about 155 KW of power for which it has been penalised Rs. 65 lakhs.

The 48-room hotel had 14 ACs and 36 geysers. Though it had six BSES electricity meters, the BSES said the owner had devised a clever method of stealing electricity. BSES Director Lalit Jalan said since "blatant power theft is responsible for power outages in most areas and Delhi is a power-starved state, it is criminal that individuals and organisations steal the limited power and create problems for the honest paying consumers''.

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