The case of the
Suspicious Wives In India
Manish Sahu
Posted
online: Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 1121 hours IST
Lucknow, October 27: It seems like a scene
straight out of the Bollywood film, Hud Kar Di Aapne, where the husband
and wife hire detectives to spy on each other. In Lucknow too, generally
known as an orthodox society, couples are increasingly roping in private
detective agencies to check if their partners are cheating on them.
Take Vineeta Thakur (name changed), who recently
approached the Introspective Detective Agency. She suspected her husband
of having an extra-marital affair, even fearing that he may get her
killed. As it happened, her fears were unfounded.
The agency’s owner, Dinesh Srivastava, said: ‘‘She was
not willing to believe the report, prepared after a month’s thorough
investigation, that her suspicions were misplaced. It took a lot of
explaining, with accompanying proof, to make her believe us.’’
Vineeta is not the only one of her kind. Increasing
numbers of people are approaching detective agencies to keep tabs on
their spouses’ fidelity. And more often than not, the suspicions are
unfounded
According to Srivastava, till just a year back, there
would be just three to four cases in a month. But now, the agencies get
about 15 such cases. According to Srivastava, 70 per cent of his clients
are women wanting to keep tabs on their husbands.
‘‘People come from all walks of life and majority of them
are from the upper middle-class or the rich and the famous,’’ said
Srivastava, who is also the secretary of the Ex-Policemen Resettlement
Organisation.
While his fees begin from Rs 15,000, it often runs into
many thousands of rupees.
However, it isn’t that his clients’ fears are always
unfounded. Srivastava recalled a case where the husband was actually
planning to harm his wife as he wanted to marry someone else. ‘‘In this
rare case, there was a real threat to the woman’s life. We warned her to
be cautious,’’ he said.
According to reports, there are only two such private
detective agencies in the city. And with the other one closed for some
time now, Srivastava is laughing all the way to the bank.
But he claims that the job has its hazards as well. ‘‘We
keep changing our detectives and never repeat the same person on the
same case. This ensures that my detectives don’t come to know everything
about a person and that they also don’t raise doubts,’’ said Srivastava.
Does he keep his clients informed about everything? No,
said Srivastava. ‘‘If there is some minor information which doesn’t
cause harm to anyone, we try to be discreet. But if we suspect something
big, then we alert the client,’’ he informed.
This article courtesy of EXpress
India
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