Power pirates see red

by Asanga Warnakulasuriya

All power pirates were issued a "red notice" by the Ceylon Electricity Board yesterday as the Special Investigations Branch of the CEB is expanding its raids to every corner of the country with the help of Divisional Police stations.

In the latest raid carried out during the weekend, 84 businessmen were taken into custody by the Special Investigations Branch for bypassing electricity meters, leading to huge losses for the CEB.

The suspect businessmen from Anamaduwa, Mundalama, Puttalam, Chilaw, Kalpitiya and Madampe were arrested for power piracy and ordered to pay fines to the tune of Rs. 5.8 million to the CEB.

SIB Head Ruban Wickremarachchi told the Daily News yesterday that a surprising disclosure was made in the recent raid when the investigators found a former OIC Crimes of Anamaduwa among the power pirates.

"The suspect ex-OIC who had tampered with the original CEB electricity meter using a wire to prevent the meter from running was ordered to pay Rs.35,000," he said. It was also revealed that the wife of the same Inspector was arrested in a previous raid.

Among the businessmen who had bypassed 3-phase electricity meters in the range of 30A-60A were four hotel owners, four prawn farm owners, four service centre operators and an oil mill owner.

The Special Investigations Branch Head further said that the General Manager CEB, Ranjit Fonseka has given special attention to curb power piracy, which had led to a loss of Rs. 33.5 million to the CEB only during the first half of 2005.

On the direction of the General Manager and assistance from the Senior DIG Ranges-1 Sirisena Herath and North Western DIG Asoka Ratnaweera, 30 policemen and a flying squad carried out the raid in the Province.