Youngsters turn spies for thrill, extra bucks

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City youngsters who have picked up a trick or two from super sleuth Sherlock Holmes, or are blessed with a natural aptitude for solving mysteries are lending a helping hand to detective agencies. Even college students are making bucks by working as undercover agents on part-time or assignment basis.
Since confidentiality is an obligation for this job, these agents operate under code names. One of the first woman detectives of the country Bhavna Paliwal, director, Tejas Detectives has trained many youngsters, and has a bunch of them on board with her. “Most of the times, even parents of these budding detectives are unaware of the nature of their work,” she says.
Her young brigade, she says handles the “mounting number of cases she receives from parents of students, and surprisingly even from some city colleges”. “Some colleges have approached us to keep a check on a few of their bright students. We send our secret agents, who are already on the campus on duty for this,” Bhavna adds.
Twenty-two-year old Dango is working with a reputed detective agency for a year now, and earns around Rs 20,000 a month. He says that his favourite TV series Byomkesh Bakshi was his initial inspiration to explore this exciting field. “I am always on a mission, trying to unravel the truth. It’s both thrilling and satisfying,” says Dango, who approached this detective agency through a newspaper advertisement, and was selected from 14 applicants. “I am planning to pursue it as a full-time career once I am through with college,” he says.
While these budding detectives primarily do college-related “spying assignments”, many graduates move to more serious ones like those involving crimes.
So, the job may sound glamorous, but the fun doesn’t come easy, warns detective Baldev Kr. Puri, director AMX Detectives. “It’s not only about passion, but those who undertake this job are daring and have a professional attitude. They’re smart enough to tackle tough situations and we know how to gauge them at the first glance. Additional skills like karate always help,” he says. Baldev narrates how recently with the help of his young colleagues, he cracked a case of a student, who had fallen into bad company and drug abuse. “Our undercover agent befriended him, and passed on the requisite information. We shared the results with his family and the boy ended up in a rehab,” he says.
“Having a student detective in the canteen or hostel is a good way of keeping an eye on the activities there,” says detective Sanjeev Kapoor of Ascon Detectives Network Ltd. “Such an idea is common in the West and is picking up in India too. We are given a basic training of the legal technicalities and self defense. We make sure not to invite suspicion and mingle naturally with the crowd,” says 24-year-old Sandhya, a budding detective.