KOCHI: An NRI based in the US suddenly noticed that the electricity bill of his unoccupied house in Kochi was shooting up for no apparent reason in the last four months.
Ajith K Vasudevan, who lives with his family in the US, paid the electricity bill for June-July of over Rs 5,000 via online.
However, what rattled him was when he received another bill of over Rs 5,000 for August-September, despite him submitting an online complaint to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) about the rising bill of his house in Janatha Road, Vyttila.
The twist in the tale came when he asked his couple friends living in Chilavanoor to visit the house and check if there was any issue with the electricity meter.
When the couple reached the house, they found it repainted and the compound clean. Also, some motorcycles were parked at the house. When they knocked on the door, two people came out and introduced themselves as tenants of the house.
The couple took a picture of the house and informed Ajith about the incident.
Police have now launched a probe after Ajith sent a complaint via email to Kochi City Police Commissioner Putta Vimaladitya on Saturday. Based on the direction of Vimaladitya, Maradu police have conducted a probe into the incident.
The police team reached the house and enquired about the matter. The tenants said the house was rented to them by an elderly woman.
“The elderly woman was the previous owner of the house. She had given the house keys to a pastor for carrying out cleaning work before the house was sold. The pastor, knowing the house was unoccupied, gave it for rent. Initially, the workers of the pastor were staying there. A few months back he rented the house to a few bachelors,” Rajesh R, SHO Maradu police station said.
“The pastor neither informed the elderly woman nor the owner of the house about renting it to other persons," the SHO added.
Ajith and his family used to come to Kerala every year. They last visited Kochi in May 2023. During the visit, they stayed at the house they bought at Janatha Road, Vytilla. Ajith purchased the house from an elderly couple a few years back.
"In 2024, they could not visit Kochi due to other engagements. Ajith paid the electricity bill for the house online. But in July this year, the electricity bill was around Rs 5000. As the house was closed, Ajith suspected that there were some errors with the electricity meter. Thus he filed an online complaint to KSEB. As there was no response from KSEB, he expected that the issue was sorted out," a police officer said.
Now the police will speak to Ajith before deciding on registering the case. The steps have been taken to vacate the tenants.
"We will speak to the house owner whether he wants to pursue the case. If he wants to proceed with the probe, we will register a case against the pastor. The tenants were correctly paying the rent. They have been asked to vacate the place soon," Rajesh said.