Resident evil: When tenants pose potential threat

Questions have repeatedly been raised about the safety and security of women in the national capital in the past few months, with incidences of rapes, molestations and sexual assaults pouring in almost daily. In many of these cases the accused have been members of the migrant population. And yet, in an easy money-making bid, properties continue to be rented out, often without any proper police verification of the tenants. Millennium Post, made a round of some areas of Delhi, where the number of tenant population has gone up in the recent years, to reveal how unverified deals continue to take place, under the very nose of Delhi police. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) dictates, anyone interested in renting property in any part of India, needs to furnish identification proof to the police, and property dealers have to facilitate this process. Flouting this rule, is punishable under Section 188 of the IPC.  'According to the IPC, a landlord is required to get his tenant's identity verified. If the tenant is a foreigner, the landlord must get him registered with the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO). Police action can otherwise be initiated against the errant landlord,' said a senior official of Delhi police. The police also has a tenant identification form which needs to be filled and submitted at the local police station. However, the official admits that few completed tenant verification forms have been submitted at the police stations in 2013. While landlords blame police laxity in the verification process, cops say landlords never come to the stations with their tenants for verification.

'Fifty owners and tenants have been arrested in different parts of south-east Delhi during the past three days as part of a secret drive launched for verification of tenants,' said a police official posted in the Chittaranjan Park area of the national capital.

Delhi police officials say that a tenant verification drive has been launched. Under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, orders have also been issued stating that no landlord should let out  property to anyone without submitting identification documents of the tenant to the police. 'Areas such as Laxmi Nagar, Preet Vihar across the Yamuna, along with Chittaranjan Park, Kalkaji, Lajpat Nagar and areas near the Delhi University campus are densely populated and have the highest number of tenants population,' said a police officer.

'Many property dealers and landlords strike a deal wherein they rent property to unmarried couples, or allow single girls to visit their male tenants, for an additional sum of money,' said Sujata Prasad, a resident of Preet Vihar. 'We have been carrying out tenant verification drives across the city for the past several years, during which landlords were requested to get the identities of their tenants verified. Awareness campaigns have also been undertaken, but landlords are yet to understand the significance of tenant verification. It is also necessary because the capital is always on the target list of terror outfits. Criminals have been found to have rented houses here under false identities to evade detection,' said a police officer of Shakarpur police station in Laxmi Nagar. Landlords, tenants and property dealers, however, alleged that verification only give corrupt cops an escuse to make money. Vicky, a property dealer in the Kalkaji, said, 'We have facilitated the deal between three to four landlords and the police. The officials demand money to permit us to provide accommodation to unmarried couples.'