BENGALURU: The murder of an employee at the Pune Infosys office has raised safety concerns in offices in Bengaluru. It also brings to fore the protocols or lack of it that security agencies follow. Many IT companies and security agencies have been accused of not doing proper background verifications of their employees.
A source in the police department administration said security agencies are hired for hefty sums by IT parks but they hire guards for a paltry salary. Background verifications are rarely done and no training is provided to personnel.
Retired police officer B B Ashok Kumar said, “There are numerous instances where the background of security guards is not verified. Security today is more about business and less about safety.”
“There is a recommendation before the government to train security guards before deploying them. There are ex-servicemen and retired police officers whose assistance can be sought to train them,” he said. “In a few incidents in Bengaluru, investigations revealed that agencies had not verified the history of its employees.”
A police official said, “According to norms, a security company has to take permission from the state’s internal security department and only then licence is issued. When the company hires employees, it has to get a no objection certificate (NOC) from the employee’s native place and produce it before the jurisdictional police where they work. Local police will have to work with police from the employee’s native place to check their background. The job aspirant will have to produce the NOCs to the employer. Only then should the employer hire the person.”
He said, “If the employer has failed to do a background check, we will write to the internal security wing of state to suspend the company’s licence.”