Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The cases of parents approaching detective agencies to inquire about their would-be daughters-in-law have tripled in the state after Raja Raghuvanshi murder case. The parents seem to be worried about safety of their sons after marriage.
More than the academic qualifications or job details, the parents want to know about the former or current boyfriends of would-be brides and whether they have a criminal mindset. Indore’s businessman Raja was murdered on May 24 by people allegedly hired by wife Sonam during their honeymoon trip to Meghalaya.
Earlier, a majority of the cases involved parents of girls seeking to get claims made by their prospective husbands verified. They included claims about academic qualifications, job and salary. They also wanted to know if the boy was a heavy drinker or gambler, was married earlier or had a girlfriend. But the trend has reversed now.
Rajkumar Pandey who has been running Faith Detective Agency in the city for over 12 years said, “If earlier, we received one case of parents wanting to inquire about their would-be daughters-in-law every day. we are getting three such cases now.”
“Earlier, in 65% of cases, we inquired about boys on behalf of the girls or their parents and in 35% of the cases, we probed the background of girls. But after the Sonam incident, 65% of inquiries are about girls and 35% are about boys.”
According to Pandey, after Sonam-Raja incident, he receives an average of 10 calls every day from parents of boys, wanting to get a report on the girls. “We have got 28 such cases from across the country since Sonam incident. In one such case, a family from Pune whose son got engaged to a girl from Vidisha sought a detailed report on her activities, friendships etc,” he added.
The women and men now mostly come into contact through matrimonial sites and have no common friends or relatives to get information about the other party. They work in companies in metros and big cities and hardly have a big social circle. Hence, they are largely dependent on professionals for running a background check.
Pandey has a team of men and women detectives who travel to the cities where the girl lives and make discreet inquiries. “Our fee depends on what information is sought and how difficult it is to obtain it,” he said.
