The crackdown on power theft will target illegal suppliers as well as beneficiaries, a Kolkata police officer said on Thursday.
"Only going after the people who steal electricity will not help. We also have to focus on those who are using the stolen electricity in their homes," said the officer in the detective department.
An elderly woman and her daughter died apparently of electrocution while trying to save another family member who got an electric shock while hanging clothes out to dry on an iron wire in front of his house in Ekbalpore Lane on Sunday.
The police suspect power theft in the locality was responsible for the deaths.
The police started a crackdown on power theft, rampant in Ekbalpore and neighbouring areas and several other parts of the city, following a meeting mayor Firhad Hakim held with police commissioner Vineet Goyal and CESC officials on Wednesday.
The police must start murder cases against people involved in stealing electricity if someone gets electrocuted after touching a wire used for power theft, Hakim said after the meeting on Wednesday.
"Power thieves usually tamper with their meters so CESC doesn’t get the actual reading. They then provide multiple connections to beneficiaries from the tampered meter," said an officer.
Officers of the detective department said at least four cases were started on Tuesday and Wednesday for power theft under the Electricity Act 2003.
Two cases were started at Ekbalpore police station, resulting in the arrest of Salman Ahmed Siddiqui, 21, and Mohammad Shakil, 44.
Another case was registered at Garden Reach police station against Shahbaz, Yousuf and Taj Mohammad. The fourth was filed at Watgunge police station against Gajala Subia.
Mayor Hakim said organised “syndicates” draw power illegally and sell it to households. CESC, he said, has a list of places and roads where power theft is common.
The mayor said teams including representatives of CESC, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and police should visit the places that are known for power pilferage.
The teams must check lampposts and streetlights and other poles to ensure there is no electricity leak and scope for electrocution.
If a team comes across any instance of power theft, it must snap the connection and register a police complaint, Hakim said. The police should then arrest the accused and slap strong charges on them.
Death by electrocution during the monsoon is not new in Kolkata and adjoining areas.
A Class VIII student got electrocuted in July last year when he was going to the community toilet in a narrow lane in north Kolkata’s Narkeldanga.
The student had touched a pump that was running on pilfered electricity or one of the wires connected to it, KMC engineers had said.
An 11-year-old boy on his way to tuition in Haridevpur, on the city's southern fringes, got electrocuted in June last year after coming in contact with an iron post from which an electric wire was hanging.
A meeting on preparations for the upcoming monsoon was held at the KMC headquarters on Wednesday. Hakim said engineers were instructed to stop power supply to electric poles if a road gets waterlogged.
