Indore: Man spends 8 days in jail for no fault of his

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The district court, in its judgement on Friday, acquitted a man who was accused of electricity theft as the MPPEB had not been able to substantiate the case. The person had been incarcerated for 8 days in jail because of the charge.

“The victim, Mukesh Rathore, was alleged of electricity theft, but the MPPKVVCL didn’t have concrete evidence against the accused. So, they were not able to prove the charges; the court admitted that the allegations against him were false. So, due to lack of evidence, the court acquitted Rathore,” said advocate Sachin Verma, counsel for the defendant.

“Due to negligence of the MPPKVVCL the accused suffered 8 days of jail. Without any concrete evidence, a case was registered against the accused which could not be proved in court. The accused was arrested July 3 and released on July 11,” said Verma.

He said officials of the MPPKVVCL conducted action on the house of the accused, where they created a panchnama that the accused was stealing electricity. They mentioned that the accused was present at the time of action but he was not there and it was proved in the court. Also, they did not do any videograpghy or photography. They also did not take down the statements of any neighbour or any person present at the spot during the action that could substantiate the case.

“The officials of the MPPKVVCL also gave contradictory statements that there was no other house near the home of the accused because of which they did not take down the statements of his neighbours, while another official said there were houses, but no one was there. The court admitted that these statements showed that the officials weren’t there at the spot,” said Verma.

After the hearing, the court acquitted the accused, said Verma.