Detectives flooded with pre, post-marital check requests

Almost a week before Aruna (name changed on request) was to get married to her husband-to-be, her parents had photographs of him laid in front of them. It included pictures of him entering a night club with his friends, walking out of his office and entering a gym. They also had details of his salary and daily activities. These evidences were collected by a detective agency that her parents had hired to do a background check on the prospective groom. 

Aruna is happily married now and has never mentioned about this to her husband. “There are increasing number of cases where families want to investigate in detail about the prospective groom or bride, especially in an arranged marriage set-up. 

In fact, there have been instances where marriages have broken days before the wedding date after the outcome of the investigation. There is more awareness these days. We have been in the business for years now. 

The request for marriage related investigations has increased, especially in the last five years,” says Arul Manimaaran of Malathi Women Detective Agency.  Look at any website of a private detective agency, the prominent categories are ‘Pre Matrimonial’, ‘Post Matrimonial’, ‘Teenagers Monitoring’ and ‘Alimony / Divorce Cases’. 

Apart from that they also look at ‘Kidnapping’, ‘Tracing of missing person, ‘Fraud / Cheating cases’, ‘Theft’ , ‘Background check for private companies’.  However, detective agencies say that it is the marriage related follow-ups that most people look for these days. 

“When it comes to arranged marriages, people are extra cautious. People want to know whether the prospective groom/bride is in a relationship with someone else or whether they are alcoholics or drug addicts. They also want to check if they have any criminal records. 

Recently, there are a lot of clients who want to check whether the boy/ girl is homosexual. Another trend we have noticed is people checking on their spouses,” says Arul. Some parents force their daughter/son to get married thinking it will change their sexual orientation. But it only makes life difficult for both families. 

“Interestingly, most of these checks are for people working in the IT industry.” Nikhil of Sharp Detective agency says, “We get close to 10-15 pre-marital checks, 20-25 post-marital checks, at least 3-5 cases where a person wants to check whether their partner is gay or lesbian. We take anywhere 5 to 15 days to investigate where we monitor their activities.” 

Investigators look into various aspects and submit the details with photographs. “We keep a close watch on their day-to-day activity and charge accordingly. Even the rate depends on how far we have to travel. For instance, if a boy lives in Nungambakkam and if his office is in Siruseri, the fees per day increases,” says Kumar, a private detective. 

Asking about the privacy, he says, “We don’t peep inside anybody’s bedrooms. We just keep track of their activities and check on their habits. We submit the details to the client and after that it is up to them to decide.”