RANCHI: Tenant verification remains a largely overlooked practice in the city, with both landlords and police showing minimal commitment to this essential safety requirement. This issue has resurfaced in light of recent criminal activities.
Following these incidents, Ranchi’s Superintendent of Police, Ajit Kumar, announced that all police stations are now mandated to collect tenant information. “We are addressing this issue seriously after two significant incidents in the past few days. Awareness campaigns will soon be rolled out for landlords to emphasize the importance of tenant verification,” Kumar stated.
However, conversations with officials from five police stations—Lalpur, Hindpiri, Lower Bazar, Bariatu, and Chutia—revealed a concerning lack of action regarding tenant verifications. The Lalpur and Lower Bazar police officials asserted that such verifications are not being conducted. “I took charge of the station a month ago, and no verifications have been performed during this time,” said the in-charge of Lower Bazar police station.
Notably, the suspected terrorist Ashraf Danish was apprehended from a lodge within the Lower Bazar area on Wednesday. Although the in-charges from Bariatu, Hindpiri, and Chutia indicated that some verifications occur, they reported these are quite limited, attributing this to landlords’ failure to provide rental agreements and tenant background details.
“It’s the owner’s obligation to report new tenants to the police. We cannot investigate every household. Larger apartment owners tend to comply, but those with smaller rentals often neglect this vital responsibility,” noted Manoj Kumar, the in-charge of Bariatu police station. Recent arrests, including one related to a suspected terrorist and the disruption of a sex trafficking ring, highlight the exploitation of these oversight gaps by criminals utilizing rental properties for illicit activities.
