Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale has admitted it is impossible for the police to actually verify the identity of all those who rent property in the city. While talking about the men who had rented commercial property near a Bank of Baroda locker room in Juinagar, which led to an elaborate heist, he said, “Although we had the documents of one of the accused, Gena Bachchan Prasad, we later realised that they were all fake. However, it is difficult for us to go and check each tenant.” According to Nagrale, the police force is not equipped to personally go and check all new tenants. “We go and specifically check for passport verification, government jobs and when private companies come to us for background checks of employees, which is paid for by them. Otherwise, we just check the documents submitted to us along with the form,” he said. A police verification is done whenever a property, commercial or otherwise, is rented out. A form is filled by both the owner and tenant, and has details like name, photograph and residential address of both. It also has copies of proof of identity and residence of both. The police goes through the documents and checks the background of the tenant. They then sign and declare the property verified. While this raises several questions, the most important is the veracity of these police verifications. According to advocate Pankaj Bandekar, the entire process has several loopholes. “The police verification, in theory, is meant to ensure that if a criminal or terrorist is seeking tenancy, the police know and keep an eye. It also ensures the safety of the property owner, who can escape being allegations of complicity in a crime, in case a crime is committed, by saying that he had informed the police. However, the cops are often unfamiliar with the rules of the tenancy act. While a stamp duty of Rs 750 is minimum for tenancy, sometimes the police accept a stamp paper of Rs 100. They don’t even do spot checks, taking the written document as the final word, which generally leads to discrepancies,” he said. However, he added, “It also isn’t completely their fault. Our police force is just ill-equipped and short-staffed to actually carry out such verifications when they get over 50 forms daily. The process needs to change because police verification is not bringing the accountability, that it should.” A senior officer from Sanpada said, “A lot of people are moving into Navi Mumbai and we get so many verification forms. Added to that are the specific tasks of verifying passports and other details. We need an additional force if we have to do door-to-door verification.” According to Trupti Singh, a tenant in Vashi, the entire process of police verification is a sham. “When we went on our own, the officer asked us to wait the entire day, just for a sign on the form. The next day, we were approached by agents who took a fee and got it signed within an hour,” she said. Several others share the experience, including property owners. Anil Mahajan, a retired teacher in Kharghar, who has rented out one of his property, said, “If we don’t get the forms signed, the house can’t be rented out and the police can make our life miserable. We do it with the idea that once they know who is living in the flat, we can be sure that our property will not be used illegally.” However, Nagrale believes that if the owners want a thorough background check, they should tell the police force in advance. “What we do for private firms, we can do for house-owners, but they need to pay a minimum fee for that,” he said. “We don’t have enough men to do thorough checks on each verification form that comes to us. We can ensure checks against fake documents by asking for multiple documents proof, but that’s about it,” he added.
