Power men versus police officers in UP as electricity workers switched off power to police station

Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur witnessed an unprecedented confrontation between two government departments when a routine check on electricity dues turned into a full-blown confrontation. What started as a simple argument between power contract worker Pradeep Kumar and consumer Amarpal in Bhadsyana village degenerated into chaos after the police dragged both men to the station and booked them under BNNS Section 170. What followed was unprecedented.

Within hours, anger swept through the electricity department. Dozens of staff stormed the Bahadurgarh police station, accusing the police of protecting consumers and wrongfully detaining their colleague. In a dramatic escalation, the workers pasted a board at the station showing unpaid dues of Rs 3,43,974 and then took the fight a step further. With their mobile cameras rolling, they climbed the police station, cut the cables and disconnected the power supply, leaving the station in darkness. The video exploded on social media, sending shockwaves through the neighborhood.

Executive engineer Surya Uday Kumar Verma later alleged that the police station itself had taken illegal electricity from a nearby residential colony and owed around Rs 3.5 lakh, justifying the disconnection.

As the public uproar increased, senior police officers intervened. Additional SP Vineet Bhatnagar admitted that there had been ‘serious misunderstandings’ between the two sides after villagers complained about misconduct by power personnel, leading to a scuffle and legal action. He said the issue has now been defused after a high-level meeting.

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with inputs from Devendra Kumar Sharma