Hospital worker's criminal past surfaces after his murder

Overlooking police verification before employing any person can have serious implications. Recently, a person from Dombivli who was externed from Mumbai managed to secure a job in the housekeeping department at Noble hospital in Hadapsar. His criminal past surfaced only after he was found murdered at a place near the hospital on Saturday morning.

The police inquiry revealed that the person in question had managed to secure the job by keeping his employers in the dark about his chequered past.u00a0Reacting on this serious matter, the city police expressed concern and said that employing people without carrying out their police verification can lead to serious implications. It can pose great danger to the employer if the person appointed has a criminal background.

In the recent case, the person with the criminal past was identified as 19-year-old Gopal Namdeo Bhalerao. He was bludgeoned to death in an open plot near the hospital, allegedly by two people known to him.u00a0The incident took place after Bhalerao had gone out with two friends to party on Friday evening. He failed to return.u00a0According to the Hadapsar police, Bhalerao had secured his job after he was externed from Mumbai last year.u00a0

The Hadapsar police have so far not arrested anyone in connection with the case.u00a0Police Inspector Pandhirinath Mandhare said, "Bhalerao's employers did not approach us for his police verification before employing him. If they would have done his verification, they would not have appointed him in the housekeeping department as, considering his criminal past, it was a dangerous move on the part of the hospital."

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Speaking on the conditionu00a0of anonymity, a person fromu00a0the hospital administration said, "The person in question was appointed by an agency which takes care of house-keeping at the hospital. As itu00a0is an outsourced job, we dou00a0not know whether his police verification was done by the agency."

The Noble hospital incident is not the first time when it has emerged that employers do not take police verification seriously and appoint people without checking their past credentials.u00a0In May last year, 10 members of Sidu Kanu Dalam, an independent Naxal outfit in West Bengal, were picked up by the Anti-Terrorist Squad from Ranjangaon MIDC in Shirur. u00a0

The police investigation revealed that all were employed in MIDC Shirur by a labouru00a0contractor without verifying their credentials, and all of them were living in rented accommodation.u00a0A senior officer attached to the Pune Rural Police said, "Neither their employer nor the chawl owner found it necessary to do their background check before employing them or offering them accommodation."