EB engineer fudges meter reading to favour ice factory, faces DVAC probe

The accused officer, S Kumar, was working as an assistant engineer in Ponneri Town Section for the period (from 2015 to July 2016) and later transferred to Vellivoyal North. Kumar, to favour an ice factory owned by John Thomas of Moogambigai Nagar, Andarkuppam, Ponneri, fraudulently changed the meter functioning. 

The accused without having territorial jurisdiction made false entries in the office computer regarding the consumption of electricity by the ice factory during June-August 2016.

In consequence of the act of the accused, the electricity consumption charges were recorded at an all-time low of Rs 1,605 during June 2016 and Rs 16,390 during August. On average, the factory was paying charges of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. 

Even after his transfer from Ponneri to Vellivoyal, without having territorial jurisdiction, the accused, with a corrupt motive to favour the ice factory, replaced the EB meter which was functioning properly thereby causing a loss to the tune of Rs 4,47,443 to the Tangedco, the DVAC noted.

Kumar, after his transfer to Vellivoyal, Minjur illegally misused the password of AE of Ponneri Town to make false entries. A case under the provisions of the prevention of corruption act and IPC 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using fraudulently uses as genuine any document which he knows it is to be a forged one) have been registered by Kancheepuram DVAC.