Delhi: Power discom staff among 2 held for extorting money from consumers

Two people, including a contractual employee of the BSES, were arrested for allegedly extorting money by falsely accusing customers of electricity theft, police said on Wednesday.

BSES employee Rajesh Sool along with another person identified as Siaj Khan and their accomplices have been extorting money since 2017 from residents of Delhi's Madangir, Safdarjung Enclave and New Friends Colony, they said.

The matter came to light after a complaint was lodged by a resident of south Delhi's Sangam Vihar in which he said he got his electricity meter shifted.

He said five people, who claimed to be employees of BSES came to his house and took away the meter, saying its seal was broken.

The complainant said on the same evening, he received a call from one of five people who told him that the meter was checked in a lab which revealed electricity theft.

The man on the phone also threatened the complainant that a case will be filed and he will have to pay a fine of around Rs 1 lakh.

But the complainant was also told that if he wanted to settle the matter, he would have to pay Rs 70, 000, police said.

The complainant then visited the BSES office to enquire about the people who had visited his house. But when he could not get any information about them, he approached the police and a case under appropriate sections was registered at the Sangam Vihar police station.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said after analysing CCTV footage, the police found that the accused had come in a car.

"The detail of the car was obtained and Siraj Khan was arrested. He confessed to his involvement in the incident. He disclosed that the gang committed the crime in connivance with a person named Rajesh Sool who is a contractual employee of the BSES," he said.

Later, Sool, a resident of Madangir, was also arrested, he said.

Elaborating on their modus operandi, the officer said Sool used to break the seal of electricity meter when he visited the house of the residents to change or install the meter.

After that, he used to tell the other gang members about the broken seal, following which Khan along with his accomplices would visit the house pretending to be from BSES and extorted money from the residents.

The car used in the crime has been seized. The electric meter of the complainant was recovered from the trunk of the car, the officer added.

Khan was previously arrested in 2017 in connection with another case registered at New Friends Colony police station, officials said, adding that the other accused are yet to be arrested.