Kolkata: Shootout turns spotlight on laxity in tenant verification

KOLKATA: The New Town police encounter, in which two gangsters — who had rented a flat with fake IDs — were gunned down on Wednesday, has raised questions on the way police verification of tenants is conducted in the township.
A large section of flat owners and residents in the Shukhobrishti complex, where the two lived for a fortnight, said that cops visited for the physical verification of tenants and merely collected a copy of the rental agreement with ID proofs of the tenants attached and handed it to the broker or landlord.

“I have never seen cops visiting the complex to check whether the tenants, who booked the flats, are at all living or have let someone else to stay in their place. It’s also a common practice here to book a flat on rent and bring in other room mates, about whom none is informed. It’s a regular practice here in this complex,” said Durba Bhattacharya, a school teacher and one of the former residents of the complex.
As per the general practice in New Town, prospective tenants are asked to furnish at least two photo ID proofs and relevant occupational documents like office ID card or trade licence number before the broker or flat owner. While brokers in most cases handle the transaction, they get the rental agreement format signed by the owner and the tenant and submit a copy of the same to the local police station and the complex maintenance office. “Cops stamp it and give us a received copy. We make further copies of the same and hand it over to the owner, tenant and the complex maintenance office. But cops seldom meet the tenants in person to verify their credentials or visit the flats later to check whether the flat occupant and the man in ID are the same,” said a property agent in the area.
Bidhannagar Police officers admitted the laxity in physical police verification but cited issues like lack of manpower and resources in this regard.
“We admit that we need to step up the physical verification of the tenants from now. There are some issues that hinder us to do so. But we need to overcome the problems and ensure that similar instances of criminals living with fake identities do not happen in the future,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate.
The issue of tenant transparency is raging in all complexes and residential areas across the city, including New Town where many tenants are students and techies from other states.
The officer added that while physical verification of tenants is still possible, the verification of IDs often becomes a major problem. “To verify Aadhar cards, we need to write to UIDAI to confirm the credentials and it takes weeks for the results to arrive. In some cases, we directly coordinate with our counterparts in other states but the information takes time to channelize,” said another officer.