KENCHANNA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is preferred by the appellant/accused against the judgment of conviction and sentence dated 04.10.2010 passed in Spl. C. No.285/2008 by the 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Tumkur, sentencing the accused to undergo simple imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.20,000/-, in default to pay the fine, to undergo simple imprisonment for six months, for the offence punishable under Section 136 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as 'Act' for the sake of brevity).

(2.) The case of the prosecution in nutshell is that on the complaint filed by the Section Officer / Junior Engineer, BESCOM, the Tavarekere police have registered a case on 12.09.2008. The allegations are that on 29.08.2009 in the midnight at about 1.00 a.m., there was theft of 750 meters of electric copper wire fixed on electric poles installed for giving connection for SIP 417 pumpset put up in the land of one Tyagaraj from 63 KVA water supply motor. On receiving the information from the villagers about the theft of copper wire, the Section Officer / Junior Engineer, BESCOM registered a complaint. After completion of the investigation, the chargesheet was filed against the accused for the offence punishable under Section 136 of the Act.

(3.) After committal of the case to the Special Court, the accused appeared and the charges were framed, which is as under: