Evolution of detective agencies in Delhi

A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. Some are private persons, and may be known as private investigators or "private eyes". Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is any licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, or looks into records. In some police departments, a detective position is achieved by passing a written test after a person completes the requirements for being a police officer. Some argue that detective agencies in Delhi do a completely different job and therefore require completely different training, qualifications, qualities and abilities than uniformed officers. 

The National Investigation Agency has been created in pursuance of the enactment of the NIA Act, 2008, and it is mandated, at the national level, to investigate and prosecute offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, friendly relations with foreign States and offences under Acts enacted to implement international treaties, agreements, conventions and resolutions of the United Nations and other international organizations and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto and is among the Indian government’s most prestigious detective agencies in Delhi.

In many other police systems, detectives are college graduates who join directly from civilian life without first serving as uniformed officers. It is a grey world in which thousands of private detective in Delhi, operate. There are no laws to regulate them or even to recognise their existence. In the absence of privacy laws in India, they get away by using methods that would have seen them serving long prison sentences in a country like the US.

They shadow unsuspecting persons, take photographs, make videos, conduct sting operations, plant bugs and other listening devices , hack into computers and eavesdrop into each and every conversation their target may have on his cell phone, including the messages exchanged. Many of them have imported high-tech equipment like spy cams and bugs which even government agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and state police forces don't have. They are much in demand for the services they offer and hence there is a boom in detective agencies jobs in Delhi.

Pre-matrimonial checks, keeping tabs on cheating spouses, corporate enquiries ranging from due diligence in joint ventures to planting undercover agents in rival companies, political spying - much in demand in the run-up to elections - and counter surveillance services like debugging and sweeping - all of this comes for a price that the information-hungry people are more than willing to pay. This is what provides the raison d’être for the plethora of detective agencies in Delhi.