ROURKELA: Employees of Tata Power Western Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPWODL) allegedly assaulted an elderly woman and her son over a pending electricity bill on July 1, 2021. The victim was identified as Parbati Das who runs a soft-drink shop at Jail Road with her son Saroj. A video clip of the woman being physically pushed by TPWODL employees has also gone viral on social media.
Das alleged that a sub-divisional officer (SDO), junior engineer (JE) and a few other line men came to disconnect power supply at their premises citing a pending electricity bill. When they protested, she and her son were assaulted.
She further claimed that they were wrongly slapped with a whopping bill of Rs 80,000. “We had applied for the settlement of the disputed bill but TPWODL did not consider our plea. On Thursday, employees of the discom arrived at our shop to disconnect power supply. One of them suddenly turned violent and assaulted me. When my son intervened and recorded a video of the incident on his mobile phone, he was slapped by one of the employees,” she alleged.
Both parties later reached RN Pali police station and lodged separate complaints. However, the IIC BK Bihari was not available to verify if cases in this regard were registered or not.