CHENNAI: In an increasingly deceptive society, it’s helpful to have the services of a few private detective agencies. Chennai has over 20 ‘exclusive’ private detective agencies along with many ‘combined’ security and private detective agencies.
There is a profound difference between the work a private detective agency does and the police do. “The police principally deal with blue collar crimes like theft, chain snatching, murder, robbery etc — by professional criminals. Private detectives deal with white collar crimes by educated people,” explains R Varadaraj, director, Sun Detective Intelligence Network India, clarifying that private detective agencies principally work on cases such as bride/groom checks, post-marital checks, employer screening, insurance claim checks, cybercrimes and so on. They also provide evidence for all these to take legal action if necessary (for example, divorce cases). An ex-police officer with a law degree, he attributes the success of his agency to his experience.
Though there is a belief that private investigation borders on invasion of privacy, more often than not, private detectives do provide important services to the public such as uniting missing persons with their families…services that the police may not be able to concentrate on, given the volume of cases they have to deal with on a daily basis. Varadaraj recalls a case in 2007, when a 33-year old Indian woman in a foreign country was trying to locate her father with hearing disability, whom she hadn’t seen since she was eight. “It took a while, and there were many challenges which I cannot disclose, but in a few days, we were able to trace the father in a small town working in a shop. I was able to reunite them after almost 25 years...this makes me feel good,” he says.
To be a private detective, one needs tobe discrete while working, and hiding one’s identity is crucial, unlike the police who can rightfully investigate cases. “Every human has a detective instinct in him/her. For instance, when a child goes out to play and returns, they check for parents’ shoes to know whether they are home and whether they will get into trouble for returning home late,” explains AM Malathi, founder, Malathy Women Detective Agency, and the first woman detective in South India. “Women are always very suspicious about things.
So I think that has helped me a lot (laughs). Good detectives should think on their feet and get out of tricky situations smoothly,” she says, adding that a detective should be fluent in at least three languages, an expert in driving two-wheelers and four-wheelers, and be tech-savvy.
As exciting and James Bond-ish as it sounds, there are many challenges that private detectives in India face, as their work is not legally recognised. There is also an eminent danger from people who have been affected by their investigations in addition to scrutiny from other legal bodies. Their work also involves unpredictable timings — some cases take months and 24x7 surveillance.
N Neelakandan, a private detective with Eagle One Detective agency, with over 20 years of experience in the field, feels that despite these challenges, their services are quite important for society. “Using our services will help people. If you’re going to spend `50, 000 on a wedding saree, why not invest `10, 000 to know more about the family you’re going to marry into?” he quips.
He elaborates that as private detective agencies, they should follow good ethics, indicating the motto on his card ‘Purely with science and logic’. “We should be trustworthy, honest and patient with cases and should never give wrong information, no matter what the circumstances. We should be true to our conscience,” he says, picking up his phone to attend to his case for the day.