Rati Agnihotri, husband booked by Worli police for stealing electricity worth Rs 47 lakh

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) on Thursday filed a police complaint against actor Rati Agnihotri and her husband Anil Virwani for allegedly stealing electricity to the tune of almost Rs 47 lakh.

An official with the Worli police station confirmed that the couple had been booked under Section 135 of the Electricity Act. The husband and wife reside in a penthouse in Sterling building near the Worli sea face.

The BEST’s vigilance department had raided their house around 10.30 am on Thursday and found that the meter had been tampered with.

According to reports, the couple had tampered with the meter and slowed it down by over 80 percent to show less electricity usage. The BEST suspects that the meter was tampered over three years back, and accordingly alleged theft worth Rs 46.9 lakh.

The undertaking had also called the actor for questioning earlier, but she was apparently not in town at the time.

BEST sub-engineer Balasaheb Kamble subsequently filed the complaint with Worli police. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III), Pravin Padwal, confirmed that the department was looking into the BEST’s complaint.

The cops are already going through the electricity readings report submitted by the undertaking,

They are expected to soon call both Agnihotri and Virwani in for questioning to the police station.

While the actor remained unavailable for comment, Virwani told a leading daily, “There has been some misunderstanding and I will address the issue when I return to the city. We have been living in this apartment building for nine or ten years and nothing of this sort has happened before. I am saddened that I was not given a chance to explain.”

BEST general manager Jagdish Patil also said the undertaking will soon start giving out Rs 5,000 as cash rewards to informants about such cases. If the penalty is high then a percentage, upto a maximum of Rs 50,000, will be shared with informants.