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Busy New Year's eve for private eyes

Detectives to keep tab on partying daughters, partners

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Like every New Year's eve, this one will see city detectives being especially busy. Besides the work of spying on spouses or partners (straight or gay), detectives are being sought out to keep tabs on partying daughters. More work comes their way on New Year's eve from parents of daughters rather than parents of sons, city detectives told dna.

"If our daughter is drinking, then make sure she reaches her hostel safely," one parent told a detective. "If she is partying then please let us know if she is into drugs or is in a relationship with a guy," goes another request. It doesn't stop there: parents don't just want their daughters to be spied on, but also want them to be stopped from doing anything they might regret.

This could be risky, detectives know. Fearing that detectives may have to face false molestation charges, some agencies are insisting on having a written statement from parents authorising the spying on their daughter.

Kirtesh Kavi of Cosmopolitan security and detective agency said: "This year we are taking undertakings from the parents (authorising us) to spy on their daughters. When we try to stop the drunk girl- as per parents' instruction- from going with a guy into an isolated space, she can claim that we tried to molest her. The undertaking gives us some security in these situations."

The trend of hiring detectives to spy on loved ones doesn't only illustrate jealousy, but also the clash of old and new moral values. Darshan Shah, detective, Strategic Assignment & Intelligence Bureau, said, "More than the girl's parents, it is the boyfriend's parents who want to spy on the girls during New Year's eve to see if they are in wrong company. This trend of parents asking us to follow their daughters around is increasing, as the girls are being more modern nowadays."

Shah's agency takes no authorisation letters from parents before spying on their daughters, but calls them to the party spot before their daughter does anything to which the parents might object.

Gay couples, too, prefer to hire detectives. Salim, a detective, said, "Lesbians are not that keen to come to a detective, but gays are. Usually it is one of the partners who wants to check if his boyfriend is cosying up to a girl."

Female detectives are involved in spying on women.

How much would a spy cost you:
The detectives' minimum charges are Rs5000 for following someone around for a day. Getting photos of the followed person with more details of their whereabouts costs Rs. 8,000 per day; and Rs10,000 if that also involves travel outside Mumbai. But there are no standard rates: some detectives may charge Rs. 69,000 for seven days and up to Rs 1 lakh per week for out-of-town cases.

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