Patna, Jan. 29: Ownership of a house at a prime location in the state capital is proving dear for Sunetra Ray, general manager, Steel Authority of India Limited, New Delhi.
The 59-year-old executive, who is running from pillar to post to get a tenant evicted from her two-storeyed house in the SK Puri area, got a rude shock when Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) officials restored power supply to the house despite her repeated pleas against it.
The tenant, Parul Singh, director, Lead Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (LIME), is running the coaching institute from Ray’s house. She has not only managed to install a new meter in her name but also got the power supply restored by allegedly furnishing fake documents to the Pesu office at Patliputra Colony and also by concealing facts before Patna High Court.
When Ray came to know about the power reconnection, she approached the high court, which directed her to place her case before the office of the executive engineer, electric supply division, Pesu (Patliputra Colony) on January 31.
On January 15, The Telegraph had reported the plight of Ray, who had rented out the ground floor of her house to Parul to run LIME tutorials on a monthly rent of Rs 20,000 in July 2010. The tenant stopped paying the rent in March 2011 and refused to vacate the premises despite three eviction notices.
Ray told The Telegraph: “The institute did not pay the power bill from January to July last year and the total pending amount came to Rs 56,695. On July 12, power supply was disconnected to the house.”
In September last year, Ray paid the pending bill of Rs 56,695 at the Pesu office and submitted an application to senior officers requesting no restoration of power supply without a written consent of the land owners — Ray and her brothers Ranjan Basu and Sitanshu Basu. While Ranjan lives in the US, Sitanshu lives in New Delhi.
Ray said she was shocked when on November 26 last year, power supply was restored. The application, which Parul submitted to Pesu office for restoring power supply, mentioned Sunetra’s consent for installation of a new electric metre. The application also claimed that Ranjan Basu was dead.
Ranjan, who come from the US to be by his sister’s side, said: “Strange are the cases here. I am alive and sitting in front of you and Parul has managed to restore power supply claiming that I am dead and my sister Sunetra Ray has given her consent.”
Ranjan said Ray came to Patna from New Delhi and presented her case before Bihar State Electricity Board chairman P.K. Rai and Pesu general manager SKP Singh after which power was again disconnected on December 3. Parul approached the high court in December against the order.
Ray said: “In the high court, Parul pleaded that the power supply should be restored as she had taken my consent and also cleared the pending electricity bill. The pending bill was paid by me.”
Parul, meanwhile, told The Telegraph: “Power connection has been restored to my institute on the high court order and for this I have even taken consent from Sunetra Ray.” She claimed that Ray is using the media to generate support in her favour.
