Bhopal: Man brandishes sword as discom team hands him Rs 18K power bill, held

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A consumer in Vallabh Nagar area in the city brandished a sword when a team of power company officials handed him over an electricity bill of Rs 18,000 on Friday evening.

The Arera Hills police arrested the accused on Saturday evening after the junior engineer who led the team registered an FIR against him. They have seized his sword.

The team of MP Power Distribution Company that had gone to recover the bill was led by junior engineer Amit Kumar Rai, who is posted in Jehangirabad Bhopal zone. He said he had gone to recover bill amount from residents in Vallabh Nagar with his staffers Mansoor, Lalit Pawar, Raheshwari Sarsaya and Rajesh Thakur.

They reached Kishan Gupta's residence at around 3.30 pm and asked him to pay the bill that amounted to Rs 18,000. Soon after, Gupta started abusing Rai. He went inside and came out with a sword in his hand.

Rai, who is a resident of SRG Sampada Khajuri Kala Bilkhiriya, called the police who assisted the power team in cutting off the power connection to Guptaís residence. He then filed a complaint at Arera Hills police station on Friday evening and the police arrested Gupta on Saturday late evening.

ASI Arera Hills told Free Press that he had been booked under Sections 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of duties), 254 and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.