Do you smell infidelity? Dial a P.I.

“Everybody has something to conceal,” says Sam Spade, the hard-boiled San Francisco detective immortalised by Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 movie, Maltese Falcon.

After clocking 35 years in the private-eye business, Vivek Kumar, managing director of Globe Private Detective Agency adds to Spade's aphorism: “Don't trust yourself”.

His office is bare, revealing little of his personality or the nature of his job — one that forces him to look beyond the glitzy urban veneer into the underbelly of the city and its inhabitants.

These days, despite being known for its corporate work, the detectives of Globe are busy checking up on erring husbands and wives. Such cases form 30 per cent of their business, and Kumar is a pro when it comes to allaying the fears of worried spouses who think their partners are cheating on them.

“I've dealt with people from all backgrounds and ages,” says Kumar. Little seems to faze him, no matter how bizarre the situation is. “But we draw the line at sleaze,” he says firmly. “Even if the client wants physical proof, like pictures or video-clips of the partner cheating, we do not comply,” he says firmly.

So contrary to images of the detective in popular culture, there are no hidden cameras, bugs and wire-taps. “I'm not in the business of making blue films,” he says, recalling an incident where a gentleman asked him to put up spy cams in the bathroom.

But Mumbai's lady detective, Rajani Pandit suffers from no such qualms. The homepage of her website says it all: 'No crime can prevail where there is Rajani Pandit'. Since she started her agency, Rajani Pandit Detective Services, in 1991, she has seen a phenomenal rise in such cases. “If the client wants proof, we use spy cams, bugs, and other such technology,” she says.

Like Kumar, Pandit, too, has seen enough to give her an insight into human nature. “The first thing I do is talk to the client and understand the case. Sometimes, it's all in the client's mind,” she says.

Then, Pandit takes a leaf out of the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency stylebook and asks the client to seek professional help from a counsellor.

Kumar concurs. He recalls one case where a distraught husband was convinced that his wife was cheating on him. “Whenever the couple had sex, the wife would wear a black bra. One day, the husband saw his wife wear the bra, even though they hadn't had sex, and contacted us.”

Nothing could dissuade him. The man pretended to leave town, and one of the agencies 18 detectives shadowed the wife for a week. “That poor woman. All she did was take care of her children, and visit the temple,” says Kumar.

Globe charges about Rs90,000 for a week's surveillance work, but “the man was satisfied and his mind was at ease”, says Kumar. For him, it was money well spent.
There's no glamour in this job.

The detective is not above rifling through a trashcan looking for a condom or checking the sheets of a hotel room for stains. The report that is given to the client often hides the more gory details. “We have to mentally prepare the client, before handing over the report,” says Pandit.

The reactions run the full gamut of emotions — shock, horror, disbelief, sometimes even joy. “I have seen grown men cry,” says Kumar softly.

The reasons for men and women hiring private eyes differ. According to psychiatrist Dr Anjali Chhabria, in a majority of cases, the husbands are looking to gather evidence that will hold in court. “Women, on the other hand, want proof with which they can prove a point,” she says.

Either way, there are plenty of private eyes in the city who are willing to oblige. Mrs Shah (name changed) is convinced her husband is having an affair. How else, she says, can one explain the unexpected, but now regular disappearances, his caginess when questioned? She is contemplating hiring a private eye, but has no idea what her next step would be if her suspicions are confirmed.

Once she gathers the nerve, she will pick up the telephone and make that call to Globe, Rajani Pandit or any of the city's numerous private detective agencies. There will be no happy ending to this story.
t_anjali@dnaindia.net