The trigger seem to be the Mumbai Police drive against agencies giving unauthorised arms that began in October 2012.
Over 3,000 security guards have left the city following the Mumbai police’s drive against unlicensed arms used by them. The drive against security agencies providing unauthorised arms with bogus licences to guards began last October after lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha, daughter of a Delhi-based IAS officer, was murdered allegedly by her building’s security guard in Wadala.
Niket Kaushik, additional commissioner of police (crime), told DNA all police stations were instructed to check whether guards hired in residential and commercial complexes had valid licences for their weapons. “The crackdown led to over 3,000 guards going back to their hometowns or other cities in search of jobs,” he said.
The police found that there were 2,000 authorised security agencies with a manpower of 10,000 in Mumbai. The remaining are unauthorised.
Joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy said it is mandatory for a person who has a firearm licence from another state to register it in Mumbai within 30 days. “These guards are probably the ones who did not register their firearms here or had unauthorised arms on bogus licences or no licence at all,” he said.
Sukhdev Patil, managing director of Tiger Securities, says there is a mandatory procedure that needs be followed while equipping guards with arms. “If a person with a firearm approaches us to join the team, we first verify the licence. After that, we take him and the firearm to the local police station and wait for their go-ahead,” Patil said.
Keep a watch
November 2012: Security guard Datta Kothavale, 38, arrested for raping a woman several times over six months.
November 2012: Two persons, including a security guard, arrested for murdering a 56-year-old housewife in Versova
August 2012: Pallavi Purkayastha, 25, killed by security guard in Wadala flat
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