Company managing director Niranjan Jadhav and works manager Pranab Kumar Chakravarty took this recourse in response to a first information report (FIR) filed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB).

In its complaint, the board has stated that the company has been stealing electricity to the tune of Rs 3.76 crore. The modus operandi involved tampering electric meter cables. When no solution was in sight, MSEB took the help of the police and raided the premises.

This only resulted in the raiding party being attacked by the company representatives within. There was stone pelting and finally the raiding party was allowed to enter after a good 15 minutes.

The police was opposed to the anticipatory bail as this could hamper the invrstigation. Additional session judge VV Borikar, in his ruling, saidthat both petitioners were prima facie directly responsible for the theft. "In view of the allegations levelled against the petitioners in the complaint, I do not think it desirable to grant interim anticipatory bail in the absence of papers of investigation."

The steel company actually owes around Rs 5 crore to MSEB, said BM Mishra, director (vigilance and security), MSEB. It had been stealing power for over two years from the time it was incorporated, he said.

The company officials, Mishra said, allegedly punctured the cable of the meter installed inside which prevented gauging electricity flow. The board tried its own fool proof technique by installing check meters outside the company premises last August.

The meter reading inside the premises was ten per cent of the actual billing registered in the other device outside. This set off the raid, Mishra said while adding that the company had earlier filed a litigation when it was billed Rs 1.4 crore. The case is still pending in the Mumbai highcourt.

The recent raid was conducted on July 10 and the power supply to the company has been cut off since then. The steel company manufactures ingots. MSEB's transmission and distribution losses also occur due to such thefts.

As per last year's assessment, Rs 40 crore arrears were to be collected by consumers for power thefts but only Rs 12 crore was recovered, Mishra said. The curreny year's assessment so far is around Rs 12 crore, he added.

Discovering thefts and proving them in a court of law is both time consuming and expensive, Mishra said, adding that it is impossible to instal check meters in all cases.