Bengaluru/IBNS: Karnataka's Janata Dal(Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy has been named in an FIR for allegedly lighting up his house on Diwali using stolen electricity.

The allegation comes less than a month after he accused the Congress government of creating an artificial power shortage in Karnataka.

Hours before the case was registered, the Congress Tuesday tweeted a video of electricity being drawn from a pole outside the former chief minister's residence at JP Nagar in Bengaluru to power decorative lights for Diwali.

In a sarcastic post with the video, the party had said its government was providing the Griha Jyoti scheme for 200 units of free electricity and wondered why Kumaraswamy was resorting to "cheap theft".

"The world's most honest man, HD Kumaraswamy, has been illegally connecting his JP Nagar residence to the electric pole to draw electricity for Diwali lights. It is a tragedy that a former chief minister has become a victim of electricity theft! Dear @hd_kumaraswamy, our government is giving 200 units free to homes, not 2,000 units! If they were so desperate, they could have applied for the Griha Jyoti Scheme," the Karnataka Congress handle posted in Kannada on X.

Mocking Kumaraswamy and stating that he may not have known that only one meter is allowed under the scheme, the Congress accused him of using stolen electricity.

"In spite of the lack of power in the state, even though we have taken measures to provide seven hours of electricity to the farmers, are you facing such a 'drought' that you need to resort to such cheap theft? Didn't you hold a press conference and say 'Karnataka is in the dark' and now you have lit your house with stolen electricity," the post said.

Denying any theft, the JD(S) leader has said that a private decorator had connected the lights to the pole to test them and he had got them linked to his electricity meter.

Apologising for the "indiscretion", he asked the electricity distributor, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM), to issue a notice and said he would pay the fine.

The case against the former chief minister was filed by BESCOM at Bengaluru's Jayanagar Police Station under the Indian Electricity Act.