DCP orders action against firm for not doing police verification

Periyar stole a gold chain before the alleged murder

The company which hired caretaker Krishna Manbahadur Periyar, 25, who murdered senior citizen, Murlidhar Naik, 85, had not got his police verification done, the Santacruz cops have found. The DCP zone 9 has ordered action against the company stating it is equally responsible for the murder.

The police said Health Care at Home India at Sakinaka, only verified Periyar through an application that has a database of court cases. During investigation the police found this company didn't inform the Sakinaka police or the Santacruz police before sending him to work as a caretaker at the Naik residence.

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The office of Health Care at Home India in Sakinaka from where Krishna Periyar was hired

A police officer told mid-day that police verification is mandatory for any company before giving a person a job like this. The company has to submit the details and documents of the prospective employee to their nearest police station. The police check the prospective employee's criminal background and after investigation give a Police Clearance Certificate to her/him.

‘Application information not valid'

Speaking to mid-day, DCP Krishnakant Upadhyay of zone 9 said, "Checking the criminal background of an employee on some application is not valid. Police verification should be done before hiring anyone. In the Santacruz murder case the company which hired Krishna Periyar as caretaker checked his background through some mobile application that has a data bank of all the court cases.

Murlidhar Purshottam Naik, the deceased

They didn't inform the cops regarding police verification. They are equally responsible for the murder of senior citizen Murlidhar Naik. We have informed the Santacruz police to take appropriate action against the company for not doing police verification. The company will be booked under another section of the IPC for negligence." While he said the app which the company used is legal, he did not reveal its name.

A police officer said, "Periyar is a resident of Nepal but also has an Aadhaar card. We verified how he received the Aadhaar card. He was arrested in 2013 for robbery under section 394 by Juhu police. He was sentenced to jail for 7 years and released in December 2022."

Confession helped

However, Periyar's criminal records are missing from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) and CIS (Case Information System) which are used by the police to check the criminal background of a person. Due to technical issues many cases accuseds' records go missing from the systems police said. An officer from Juhu police station said Periyar confessed that he was arrested before and due to this they checked his records and found this was correct.

A police officer said, "The police verification is done by the Special Branch 2 of police. They also check with the crime branch and after verifying they issue a Police Clearance Certificate to the person."

Repeated attempts to contact Health Care at Home India did not yield results.

Periyar was appointed as a caretaker on May 1 at the deceased Murlidhar Naik's residence. Naik wore a gold rudraksha weighing 20 grams and Periyar decided to steal it. Early on May 7 Periyar stuck tape on Naik's face multiple times and tied his hands and legs and stole the rudraksha. Later he fled to Gujarat and was caught by the Santacruz police from Ahmedabad railway station.