Police in the Bidhannagar area have issued show cause notices to 94 landlords for renting properties without conducting mandatory background checks on their tenants.
The crackdown affects 242 tenants across residential neighbourhoods under the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. So far, only 33 landlords have responded by providing police clearance certificates for their tenants.
The enforcement action spans multiple police station jurisdictions:
- Technocity: 20 notices issued
- Baguiati: 12 notices
- Airport area: 11 notices
Under police guidelines, landlords have some flexibility in their verification approach. For families with children, they may request police clearance certificates (PCC) only from the head of household, while submitting details of other family members through a tenant verification form. However, paying guest accommodations must provide PCCs for all individual boarders.
“If a couple want to rent a house, ideally, both should submit PCCs. But for a family with children, the landlord may ask only for the head of the family’s PCC,” said a Bidhannagar City Police officer.
The stricter verification requirements follow several serious security incidents in rented properties. Fraudulent call centres operating from residential apartments have become a growing concern for authorities.
Most notably, Bangladeshi MP Anwar Azim Anar was murdered last year in a rented New Town apartment where criminals had been staying without proper background checks. More recently, police arrested tenants running a fraudulent call centre from a Baguiati apartment whose landlord had failed to conduct proper verification.
Last month, Bidhannagar Police issued an order requiring all landlords to provide tenant details to local police stations before renting properties.
Violators face punishment under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, according to the police order.