Usha Chokhani (54), whose body was recovered from her posh Mandeville Gardens residence on Sunday, was one such resident who didn’t get the help verified.
Deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) Vineet Goyal said: “We can’t do much if residents do not come forward. We observed that such murders were usually committed by domestic helps or miscreants close to them. Therefore, the Kolkata police asked residents to submit details about their help to respective police stations. We tried to create and maintain a database. But only a handful of residents came forward. We don’t have a database now and it is very hard to prevent such incidents or track down criminals.”
The initiative was taken by Kolkata police in 2006, when Prasun Mukherjee was commissioner. An advisory was issued to all residents, asking them to be alert while hiring domestic help. They were asked to verify the credentials of domestic helps, recruit from known sources, on the basis of proper recommendations from the previous employer. Households were then asked to forward the details, including proper name, age, residential address and contacts in the city, with photographs to the respective police station. The police would then check if domestic helps had any criminal record and would verify his or her antecedents.
The police were trying to create a database for all domestic helps in the city and its suburbs.
But after its launch in 2006, initially around 40 households came forward. But later on, no one followed the advisory or submitted details to the police. For instance, in Gariahat police station that covers Mandeville Gardens, only 5 households came forward in 2006 and none thereafter.
According to the police, most domestic helps come from outside the city and from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. They are employed without proper verification.
“In many households, residents do not even know the full name of the person they are hiring. Many helps go by names such as Shiv, Ramu. There have been many cases when they have committed thefts, robberies and murder. Since they come from distant villages in other states, it is very difficult for us to track them down and solve a case,” said an officer at the Gariahat police station.