By Mohamed Foday Conteh
The Manager of National Confectionary Company (NATCO), Vijay Sharma, was brought in court on Friday 17th September 2021 on allegations of abstracting electricity illegally.
Sharma was arrested on Wednesday 8th September 2021 after the presidential task force of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA), on a metre verification exercise, found out that the company did an illegal connection. He was charged with one count of illegal abstraction of electricity contrary to section 68 of the National Electricity Act of 2011.
According to Musa Barmeh, who was part of the team from EDSA that visited the factory on the said date, they were ushered in by the security of the factory. He said it was Sharma who later showed them where the metre was on their request. He said while they were inspecting the metre, one Musa Burwah Tarawallie from EDSA noticed that there was illegal abstraction –tampered from the metre.
Barmeh described the metre as an ordinary three-phase prepaid metre. He added that the said metre was, however, connected like a Maximum Demand Indicator (MDI) metre because it was having a current transformer (CT) across. That, he said was the reason the said metre was not functioning properly and as a result, could not account for its actual consumption.
The EDSA staff affirmed that even after they disconnected the metre at the factory, there was still light. He said that they took photographs of the factory on that occasion.
Sharma denied the allegations made against him at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters. He said that he was not involved in any illegal abstraction of electricity. The manager added that he was at the NATCO factory on the said date when the EDSA presidential taskforce team arrived. He affirmed that he was the one that took them to where the metre was.
The manager denied being at the scene when the EDSA team disconnected the metre. He stated that immediately after the metre was disconnected the said men came to him and asked the reason the light was still on after they have disconnected the metre. Sharma said that he told them that he had no idea about that because he is not an electrician. He noted that the EDSA breaker box is sealed and that the metre was installed by staff of EDSA.
Magistrate Sahr Kekura granted bail of 100 million Leones with two sureties in the Western Area to Sharma after making his third appearance in the preliminary investigation of the said matter.
The matter was adjourned to 28th September this year.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (22/09/21)
