Gang-rape at Cubbon Park: Security agency chief arrested

The police on Saturday arrested the chief of Pawan Security and Detective Agency in connection with the recent gang-rape of a 34-year-old woman inside Cubbon Park by two guards belonging to the agency.

The police said Keshav Murthy had been arrested for failing to verify the antecedents of the two suspects, who are natives of Assam.

A senior police officer said, “After the suspects were arrested, we asked the security agency to provide us with details of the two guards. But it failed to do so. In fact, it does not even know the full name of two of its accused employees. Murthy was in charge of deploying the guards and he too did not know the basic details of the duo. He has been arrested under Section 20 of the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005 (PSAR Act).”

Strict warning
The police said every security agency should follow the rules under the PSAR Act.
In case an agency is found to have violated the rules, the Internal Security Division of the government will cancel its licence and shut it down.

“There are around 950 private security agencies in the State and 4.5 lakh employees are working as security guards. The City alone has 600 agencies and 2.5 lakh security guards. The number of retired army guards is less, while the majority of the security guards are from North India. We have asked the owners of the agencies to get the background check done of every employee, failing which the owner of the agency will be booked and arrested,” said another officer.

‘Impart training’
“Also, if the guards have a gun, then their arms licence should be scrutinised and they should be imparted proper training. We will discuss with the senior police officers about the police department imparting training to these guards. We will carry out an intense drive to check violations by security agencies,” added the officer.