CHHATTISGARH RAJYA,VIDDUTA MANDAL Vs. SUBHASH KUMAR PRAJAPATI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present Acquittal Appeal has been preferred by the Appellant against the judgement dated 11.1.2010 passed by the Special Judge (Electricity Act), Bilaspur, in Electricity Criminal Case No. 108/2008, whereby the Respondent has been acquitted of the charge under Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003.

(2.) BRIEF facts giving rise to the filing of the instant Acquittal Appeal as per the complaint are that the Respondent had been given an electricity connection, bearing service No.73/03/17574, in his betel -shop and that on account of non -payment of outstanding electricity bills amounting to Rs.67,556/ - due upon the Respondent towards the said connection, the said electricity connection of the Respondent was disconnected by the Electricity Board. However, on 22.4.2008, on inspection of the betel -shop of the Respondent by the Executive Engineer A.K. Shrivastava along with Junior Engineers Smt. Mamta Kashyap and Praveen Sahu of the Electricity Board, it was found by them that the Respondent was using electricity illegally by connecting the said connection, which was earlier disconnected by the Electricity Board, without any permission from the Electricity Board and thus he was committing the theft of electricity and in the course he was using two tubelights, one bulb, one fan and one refrigerator. In this connection, spot inspection report and panchnama was prepared and around 3mtr PVC wire was seized in presence of the representative of the Respondent. Thereafter, a complaint case (Electricity Criminal Case No. 108/2008) was filed before the Special Judge (Electricity Act), Bilaspur against the Respondent for having committed the offence under Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003, and the matter was put to trial.

(3.) DURING the course of trial, four witnesses i.e. N.K. Roy, Assistant Engineer (Revenue), Smt. Mamta Kashyap, Assistant Engineer, Praveen Kumar Sahu, Junior Engineer and A.K. Shrivastava, Executive Engineer were examined as PW -1, PW -2, PW -3 and PW -4, respectively, on behalf of the prosecution in support of its case. Statement of the accused Respondent was also recorded under Section 313 of CrPC in which he denied the circumstances appearing against him in the prosecution case and pleaded innocence and false implication.