1. The respondent is the owner of a flour mill in Mahalla Kaliasthan at Dinapur. The mill is fitted with a ten horse-power motor and the respondent is its recorded consumer of the Patna Electric Supply Company Limited (hereinafter to be referred to as the PESCO) under account No. 12438. The meter provided in the installation of the respondent was a three-phase meter. It was tested by K. L. Bhattacharji (P. W. 3), an assistant meter tester of the PESCO, on the 7th January, 1952,, and supplied to the respondent on the 8th January, 1952, on which date the respondent had entered into an agreement (Ext. 1), with the PESCO agreeing to pay for the electrical energy supplied to his mill by the PESCO on certain terms. At the time of supplying the meter to the respondent, it had been properly sealed with round lead seals and the nuts on the studs were fully tightened up. Subsequently, on the 16th April, 1956, the round lead seals were replaced by a special type of seals known as the meter door seals. The nuts were again fully tightened up and in accordance with the usual practicq, the seals were put on the top studs.

2. The prosecution case is that in the normal process I of transmis