Four private detectives slammed for probe

Mumbai: The Thane Crime Branch (CB) has arrested four private detectives for allegedly procuring Call Detail Record (CDR) of individuals illegally for sale to clients. A case has been lodged with the Kalwa police station. They have so far procured 177 CDR details. After being produced in court, the four were remanded in police custody for the next five days. As per law, acquiring the CDR of a person without his/her consent is illegal.

The accused, who were identified as Makesh Madhvan Pandiyan (42), Prashant Shripad Palekar (49), Jigar Vinod Makawana (35) and Samresh Nantun Jha, alias Pratik Mohpal (32), were residents of Thane district and ran an unregistered detective firm. They would send the number of the targeted individual to one of their aides in Delhi, who would then procure and furnish the CDR to the accused. According to a CB officer, the accused were allegedly selling the CDR details to their clients for Rs 25,000 to 50,000 per number.

The CB is investigating the reason behind the sale of such CDRs, the price at which they were sold to clients and also if the accused resorted to extortion and blackmail or harmed anyone with their activities. A CB officer said, “As per law, getting CDR details of any person without their consent is illegal. The accused were in this business for the last five years. They have cheated more than 100 people by divulging their private details. The victims are from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.”

A police officer further added, “The accused have revealed that their clients include couples, parents of young children, insurance company employees, and others used to approached them to get CDR details, mostly to keep an eye on the said person. There are four more accused, who would help them from Delhi but they are yet to be arrested.”

Deputy commissioner of police, Thane Crime, Abhishek Trimukhe said, “The accused used to get details of any person and we suspect that they have links with cellular firm agents or employees and we are working on it. We have found three computers, two laptops, 11 mobile phones and 177 CDR record files from the house of the accused, which will be scrutinised.”