Indian women private investigators in demand
Updated
Indian women are entering the male-dominated field of private investigation…and finding they're very much in demand.
Presenter: Alana Rosenbaum
Speakers: Usha, Co-founder, Venus Detective and Security Services; RahulRai is the director of Globe; Rajani Pandit, Founder, Rajani Investigation Bureau
ROSENBAUM: The detective follows the car through Mumbai peak hour traffic. She watches from a discrete distance as the subject pulls into a hotel then walks a few metres down the streetto a second hotel. He's there to meet his lover, a local bar dancer. Every weekend he makes the trip from Dubai to see her, telling his wife he's travelling on business. But the wife suspects foul play, and engages Mumbai-based Globe Detective Agency. After a two-month investigation, her worst suspicions were confirmed.
RahulRai is the director of Globe.
RAI: Finally we came to know, ok they're in a particular room on a particular night, then we informed the client in Dubai and they immediately flew down from Dubai to Bombay and they caught them red-handed.
ROSENBAUM: Raiassigned several female detectives to this case...His firm is among a growing number in India relying on women investigators.
Firms say female agents have better access to homes and offices as they're more likely than men to pass as servants and secretaires.
They're also believed to arouse less suspicion…In India, women are newcomers to espionage. There's never been an Indian Mata Hari, and in a society of fixed gender roles, many simply don't expect a woman to be a spy.
Usha is co-founder of Venus Detective Services.
USHA:Everyone thinks,'Oh, she's a lady, what can she do?She may ask some questions, let us answer that..'That's the attitude that some men have so I grab that attitude and I do my work.
ROSENBAUM: Many of the cases assigned to female spies are pre-marriage investigations…some agencies send attractive young women to bars to test the will-power of men about to wed.
RahulRai of Globe agency.
RAI:A lady can easily get into a pub, make friendship with him and check whether he is characterless or of a good character. If he is giving signals to a lady, that means he is of a bad character, otherwise he is of a good character.
ROSENBAUM: Many families also employ detectives to check the credentials of prospective sons or daughters-in-laws.
RajaniPandit, who headsRajani Investigation Bureau, says she's caught out many young fiancés.
PANDIT:In one instance, the girl said she worked in a multinational corporation and because she was beautiful her fiancé believed her. But our investigations revealed she was a servant working in a house.
ROSENBAUM: Agencies also say there's a growing demand from parents to have their children followed.
Usha, from Venus Detective Agency.
USHA: The high society people, first thing they don't have much time to give their kids and when they feel there's something wrong they come to our investigators; they want to know is the kid really going to college or she is bunking her classes? She's going to movies, she's going to friends, is she into drugs?
ROSENBAUM: Usha began her career as a private investigator almost 20 years ago. She speaks seven languages and works mostly on corporate cases; some of her clients are foreigner companies checking out potential Indian business partners.
Usha also traces missing persons. Once, she was approached by the parents of a teenage girl who disappeared during Hindus-Muslims riots in Mumbai.
The parents were convinced she'd been kidnapped, but Usha discovered the girl had, in fact, eloped.
USHA: The girl's family being a Brahmin family, it's a very rich family they were, and the boy was just a mechanic who used to do the mechanical work in front of the house, and yes he was a Muslim boy.
ROSENBAUM: Having solved thousandsof cases, Usha says her gender no longer discourages clients.
USHA:They used to laugh and give a sarcastic look, 'Oh it's a girl, she won't survive,' but I proved everyone wrong."
