Kolkata Police to collect data on domestic helps, tenants for citizen safety

Kolkata: The Kolkata Police has decided to collect detailed information on domestic helps, security guards, drivers and tenants as a preventive measure to ensure the safety of citizens, especially senior citizens.

According to sources, a high-level meeting was held at Lalbazar on Saturday where Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and senior officials reviewed the safety of elderly people living alone and dependent on domestic helps. The move comes in the backdrop of the murder of a 79-year-old woman at Panchasayar.

Although a system for collecting information on domestic helps already exists, police are now stressing the inclusion of nursemaids, drivers and tenants. Sources said that instead of waiting for families to share details, police will proactively collect this information. A uniform format has been prepared and circulated to police stations across the city, to be filled in by officers and preserved at local stations. The decision follows Saturday’s arrests in the Panchasayar murder case. Nursemaid Ashalata Sardar of Meherpur, South 24-Parganas, who had been working at the household for only five days, was picked up from her rented accommodation in Narendrapur early in the morning. Her associate, Md. Jalal Mir of Uttar Durgapur in the same district, was arrested later that day. The victim, Bijaya Das, was found dead at her New Garia residence on Friday.