MUMBAI: Around the time ‘Siya Point’ at Lohagad Fort—where a Pune woman allegedly pushed her fiancé Ketan Agarwal to his death in June—began drawing curious visitors, detective agencies in Mumbai said they noticed a rise in enquiries for premarital background checks from families across Maharashtra.There are no hard numbers to measure this growing trend, but various private detective agencies TOI spoke to said premarital investigations are becoming common.Families are no longer content with meeting relatives, checking jobs and matching horoscopes. Increasingly, they also want to match facts.Even in Mumbai, where cyber fraud and property disputes keep investigators busy, detectives said matrimonial background checks remain among their biggest revenue earners.“Since the Lohagad incident, we’ve received a steady request for premarital background checks. Families want to know if the prospective bride or groom has had previous relationships that haven’t been disclosed,” said a staffer of a Mumbai-based detective agency.One private investigator recalled a recent case in which an engagement was reportedly called off after a family learnt that the prospective bride remained friends with a former college crush, despite her explaining that the relationship had never progressed beyond youthful infatuation.In another instance from June, a Gujarati family reportedly withdrew from an alliance after discovering that the prospective groom regularly shared a pool cab to work with a female colleague, even though there was no evidence of an inappropriate relationship.Not every investigation ends over matters of the heart. One Mumbai family reportedly cancelled their daughter’s engagement after investigators found that the prospective groom had concealed substantial debts and ongoing legal disputes.In another case, a groom’s family walked away after discrepancies emerged in the prospective bride’s educational qualifications and employment history.Agarwal’s death, along with a string of high-profile marital murder cases across the country, appears to have heightened concerns over hidden relationships, financial troubles, concealed personal histories and alleged violent behaviour.Among the most widely discussed was the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi during his honeymoon in Meghalaya in 2025, in which police accused his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, of conspiring with hired killers.In another case, a newlywed woman in Bihar was arrested for allegedly plotting her husband’s murder just 45 days after their wedding.“Earlier, people approached us only when they had a specific doubt. Now they ask for verification even when everything appears perfectly normal. They simply want to be sure there are no unpleasant surprises,” said the director of another Mumbai detective agency.Darshan Shah of Strategic Assignment and Intelligence Bureau told TOI that premarital background checks are not new, but over the past few months, “we have noticed an increase in such enquiries”.Traditional families usually seek to verify the prospective bride or groom’s employment, salary, criminal record, financial background and friend circle.The requests, Shah said, can sometimes be surprisingly specific. “Many families ask us for call detail records, private messages or emails, which would be illegal to obtain,” he said.In one case, Shah said, a family wanted investigators to find out whether the prospective groom was gay or had undergone gender reassignment surgery, and whether he had previously been married or divorced. Visits to dance bars or any addiction are other pointed queries that families ask for.A cyber consultant attributed the rise in background checks to the growing popularity of matrimonial websites and dating appsUnlike traditional arranged marriages, where families often knew each other through relatives or community networks, online matches connect strangers.Legal experts, however, cautioned that there is a fine line between due diligence and intrusion.Public records, lawful enquiries and consent-based verification are legitimate.Accessing private messages, confidential call records or hacking social media accounts is not.Retired IPS officer-turned-lawyer Y P Singh said background verification itself is not illegal, provided investigators stay within the law.“A general verification for checking the background of a person may not amount to a criminal offence if it is done with discretion and in an unobtrusive manner. However, if any person is followed from one place to another or someone loiters around, then it will amount to an offence under Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932, which is a cognisable offence,” he said.
