RTI reveals top security firm has not disclosed data on armed guards

The organisation, with its corporate office at Andheri, says it employs 45,000 security personnel, but is yet to tell cops how many of them are armed and have valid licences

The company’s website lists TATA, Reliance, Samsung, Godrej, Big Bazaar among its clientele. But this high-profile private security firm, NISA, with 45,000 guards on its payroll, has failed to fill Mumbai police in with basic yet crucial details like how many of its personnel carry firearms.

A security guard from NISA. Pic/Atul Kamble

Yogesh Holkar, a member of the NGO ‘Swabhiman’ run by Congress MLA Nitesh Narayan Rane, has uncovered these facts through a Right to Information (RTI) plea. MiD DAY has a copy of the reply, in which Mumbai police has acknowledged that NISA has kept critical information undisclosed.

Queries
The police department has responded to Holkar, saying that the private firm hasn’t provided data on:
How many armed guards are working with the company?
How many of them have arms licences?
In which states were the licences issued?
Do the guards have valid arms licences from Maharashtra?
How many of them have applied for renewal of licences?

Reply
The only information the department was able to offer Holkar was that NISA secured an establishment licence on August 8, 2008. “It is shocking that the company has not supplied details of all the armed men working with it.

This is, potentially, a huge security threat,” Holkar told MiD DAY, adding, “Not just the RTI officer, even the deputy commissioner of police, Headquarter (II) who is responsible for maintaining a database of all the security agencies in the city and the assistant commissioner of police from DN Nagar division, where NISA has its corporate office, have failed to furnish any details in this respect.”

On the other hand, the company’s website (https://www.nisaeye.com/) emblazons having 45,000 security personnel in its ranks, based at over 3,500 installations in India, and managed through about 45 branches. It claims that it’s been administering security to some of the biggest names in the corporate world since 1973.

The Other side
Despite repeated attempts by MiD DAY, Andrew Rodrigues, general manager, business development at NISA, refused to give his version. He only said, “It’s a matter between the company and the police. The media has no role to play.”u00a0

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