Delhi court convicts woman running beauty parlour in Batla House for electricity theft

New Delhi: A court here has convicted a woman, a tenant running a beauty parlour in Jamia Nagar's Batla House, for electricity theft, saying charges against her were proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Assistant Sessions Judge Vivek Kumar Gulia was hearing the case against Shaheen alias Shaheena against whom the Jamia Nagar Police Station had registered an FIR under Section 135 of the Electricity Act.

The section, which deals with punishment for electricity theft, such as illegal connections and meter tampering, provides a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment or a fine several times the amount of financial gain on account of the theft.

In an order dated September 19, the court noted the facts of the case, according to which the accused, who was running a beauty parlour in a rented premises, was engaged in theft of electricity by directly tapping from the BSES pole with the help of an illegal cable.

It noted that the raiding team raised a bill of around Rs 1.87 lakh for the theft, which Shaheena failed to pay.

Regarding the accused's identification, the court noted the testimony of the property dealer Zafar Abbas, who said he had rented his mother's property to Shaheena for running a beauty parlour.

It said, "Prosecution witness 7 (Abbas) has deposed categorically that accused Shaheena approached him for a shop on rent for running a beauty parlour and therefore, he asked Rs 8,000 per month but the accused asked him to reduce it to Rs 5,000 and told him that she would arrange the electricity in the shop herself." "This court finds no reason to doubt the credibility of PW7. Further, the accused has not been able to show any motive for which PW7 would make false statements against her," the court said.

It said Shaheena did not claim that she was not into beauty parlour business or that she was doing a different work, nor did she provide any independent witness to prove that she did not take the premises on rent.

The court said that the premises and the accused’s residential address were in the same area in Batla House of Jamia Nagar.

"Sufficient evidence has come on record to show that accused was the tenant in the inspected premises and was using electricity without authorized means at the relevant time," it said convicting the accused.

The matter has been posted for the arguments on the issue of civil liability and the quantum of sentence on September 27.