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It seems like a scene straight out of the Bollywood film, Hud Kar Di Aapne, where the husband and wife hire detectives to spy on each other. In Lucknow too, generally known as an orthodox society, couples are increasingly roping in private detective agencies to check if their partners are cheating on them.

Take Vineeta Thakur (name changed), who recently approached the Introspective Detective Agency. She suspected her husband of having an extramarital affair, even fearing that he may get her killed. As it happened, her fears were unfounded.

The agency’s owner, Dinesh Srivastava, said: ‘‘She was not willing to believe the report, prepared after a month’s thorough investigation, that her suspicions were misplaced. It took a lot of explaining, with accompanying proof, to make her believe us.’’

Vineeta is not the only one of her kind. Increasing numbers of people are approaching detective agencies to keep tabs on their spouses’ fidelity. And more often than not, the suspicions are unfounded

According to Srivastava, till just a year back, there would be just three to four cases in a month. But now, the agencies get about 15 such cases. According to Srivastava, 70 per cent of his clients are women wanting to keep tabs on their husbands.
‘‘People come from all walks of life and majority of them are from the upper middle-class or the rich and the famous,’’ said Srivastava, who is also the secretary of the Ex-Policemen Resettlement Organisation.

While his fees begin from Rs 15,000, it often runs into many thousands of rupees. However, it isn’t that his clients’ fears are always unfounded. Srivastava recalled a case where the husband was actually planning to harm his wife as he wanted to marry someone else. ‘‘In this rare case, there was a real threat to the woman’s life. We warned her to be cautious,’’ he said.

According to reports, there are only two such private detective agencies in the city. And with the other one closed for some time now, Srivastava is laughing all the way to the bank.

But he claims that the job has its hazards as well. ‘‘We keep changing our detectives and never repeat the same person on the same case. This ensures that my detectives don’t come to know everything about a person and that they also don’t raise doubts,’’ said Srivastava.

Does he keep his clients informed about everything? No, said Srivastava. ‘‘If there is some minor information which doesn’t cause harm to anyone, we try to be discreet. But if we suspect something big, then we alert the client,’’ he informed.

This article courtesy of EXpress India

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