It’s complicated: The murder that woke us

The murder of famed perfumer, Monika Ghurde, in Goa was unnerving. She was physically assaulted and killed allegedly by a man whose job was to keep residents of her apartment safe. Police claim the accused, Rajkumar Singh, was angry after he was named in the theft of an umbrella. Singh is 21 and with no known records of prior work experience as a security guard. Police were able to trace him through a series of ATM transactions he had made using Ghurde’s cards — PINs of which he forced her to reveal.

A lack of attention and background checks on personal staff and guards often makes us vulnerable. Why would you trust a 21-year-old man with the security of your residents when you are not even sure of his work history

And despite police checks and references, we still have no handle on the applicant’s mental state. We are blank on several answers. Is he or she a psychopath Can we trust him or her around children We don’t have a clue. It’s a leap of faith India has been taking for years because we are all desperate for helps. Our crime records make for grim reading.

In 2011, domestic helps committed over 700 serious crimes nationwide. In 2015, cops in Mumbai — who were investigating two brutal murders committed by domestic helps — added that less than 10 per cent of the helps in the city were registered with the police. The serious irony here is the fact that even if we don’t know much about our domestic helps, they know us better than our best friends. They are familiar with our routines and are privy to intimate details of how the home is run.

Mind you, this is not to pour suspicion on the millions who are employed by trusting households. This is to reiterate the need for a database that can filter the dubious from the genuine.

Another important talking point is how do we handle an incident which involves a domestic help

A lady who was on a visit to the US recently returned to find her diamond earrings missing. Convinced that it was one of her two maids she informed their supervisor who deftly conveyed the message that the thief must place the jewellery inside a mail box. The earrings were duly returned and the two maids (because the thief’s identity was kept secret) were immediately fired — the matter was handled swiftly, carefully. In the absence of a clear system, such informal tactics go a long way in keeping the peace. Also, we need to be careful with belongings. Entrusting domestic helps with things that cost more than a month’s pay is downright stupid. If there are valuables missing, we should also immediately ask ourselves if we were responsible for “encouraging” the theft in the first place.

The best solution here is to pay the guilty a month’s pay and ask them to leave. The cops who were probing the murders in Mumbai said many crimes were committed as acts of revenge. It’s then best to get out of these situations while maintaining peace and a sense of humanity.