THANE: A quarry owner from Bhiwandi has been convicted by the Thane sessions court for his involvement in power theft for a period of seven months and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of nearly Rs 30 lakh. The accused Kunal Patel, was convicted by the sessions judge Judge P P Jadhav in a recent order.Prosecutor Vivek Kadu told the court that the MSEB officials inspected the premises of Patel’s quarry at Bhandarli on September 23 in 2014 and found that the meter reading was not working. They seized the meter and sent it for examination.After inspection, it was found that the power supply was tampered with. Hence the meter reading was no longer being recorded or displayed.The power theft of 75,769 units happened over a period of seven months and and amounted to nearly Rs 9.9 lakh. Subsequently, a notice was issued to the accused to pay for the illegal power consumption. Patel failed to pay up and was booked and tried in the case.The accused, following the summons from the court, appeared and produced a copy of notice issued by him to MSEDCL on October 13, 2014.After hearing both parties, the judge observed in his order, “...On perusal of the contents of the notice it is crystal clear that the accused was well aware of the facts of testing of the meter....The fact that the meter was tampered has been clearly established...and the tampering of the meter is proved beyond reasonable doubt.”

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