Jamshedpur, March 19: The anti-theft cell of Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) on Tuesday evening detected a huge power theft at Sati Iron & Steel Company in Gamharia.

Acting on a tip-off, a team, comprising superintending engineer, Seraikela circle, Chandrika Singh and officials from the anti-theft cell, raided the premises and found electricity being pilfered in highly sophisticated manner. The JSEB team has imposed a penalty of Rs 4.4 crore against the management of the company, which is a mini-steel plant with an induction furnace.

The police have registered a case under Section 135 of Electricity Act and a theft case against Sunil Kumar Agrawal, the managing director of the company, on the basis of an FIR lodged with the Gamharia police station by JSEB junior engineer Tribhuban Sinha.

When reports last came in, the police were raiding Agrawal’s house and other business establishments in Sonari, Bistupur and Sakchi to nab Agrawal, who is absconding. According to the superintending engineer, Agrawal had set up the steel company one-and-a-half-year ago and taken a 33KVA line from JSEB’s Gamharia grid.

“Everything seemed normal and the digital meter installed in the factory appeared to be functioning normally. But there was constant phase imbalance and on an average 30 per cent power loss was shown from the phase in which the accused company was set up,” said Singh. He added that the power theft was carried out with such precision technology that it took about seven hours to detect the theft.

He said it seemed the cables used in the plant consisted of in-built sensors, which would give the industrialist an opportunity to manipulate the theft according to his wishes.

Singh said he would recommend cancellation of the company’s licence to the industry department.