Detective agencies and premarital verifications

KOCHI: Daredevil plots and heart-racing adventures are no longer the monopoly of Hercule Poirots and Sherlock Holmes. Private detectives of the 21st century have long left the grasps of fiction and moved out into bright reality. In fact, they might just be wandering around the muddy roads of Kochi.Kochi has around six detective agencies. But since most of them are registered as private companies, it is difficult to put in a clear number.Some of them have been in the market for decades.“I have been in this profession for 17 years. In those days, we were mostly involved in undercover operations for business houses. We would join as ordinary employees and then check on the working of other employees. But today with CCTVs this has gone off the board. But the number of corporate verification cases and pre-marital verification cases are on the rise,” says Subhash Varma, managing director, Satyam Detective Agency Pvt Ltd.Pre-marital verifications are one of the most lucrative of the lot. “Each case will cost as much as Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000 depending on the specifications of the customers,” says Asha James of Faith Detective Agency.Private detectives fish out details of the would-be bride/groom through undercover operations. Since matrimonial sites are often unreliable to get personnel details, private detective agencies are the preferred choice among anxious parents. There are also post-marital verifications. This involves spying on a husband/wife at the instruction of the spouse.“This is mainly in vogue among people in the age group between 35 and 50. Most of them belong to the highly educated social strata."  Here the private detectives are employed to gather evidence to support divorce cases. “But at times spouse will be innocent and the suspicions baseless. But such cases are very rare,” said Asha.The bulk of cases are in the corporate industry. This would include verification of details of customers, employees and so on. They are employed by banks against loan absconders and call centres at the time of recruitment. These are however less lucrative in nature.But for all its adventure private investigations are not the thing for youngsters. The reason being that experience is the sole pre-requisite. “It’s mostly the older generation. We have a lot of retired police officers, military officers and so on."  "Educational qualifications do not count much in this profession,” said Denish Xavier from Shadows Consulting and Investigating Agency.