The entrance to Shah Rukh Khan’s house

Mumbai, Aug. 17: A private security guard has to undergo a four-week training before he can be sent to work, according to rules laid down by the government.

“Every security agency has to have a training period for their employed guards for a period of 28 days before he can be put on a job. This has been made mandatory by the government. This includes physical and behavioural training,” says B.R. Kumar, chairman of the Maharashtra chapter of the Central Association of Private Security Industry.

But Yatendra Singh Chauhan, in custody at Bandra police station for killing a colleague, was sent to guard Shah Rukh Khan’s home on July 30 directly after he was hired.

The recruitment procedure is simple, says Kumar. The candidate has to fill up a form given by the agency and give proof of residence, references and ration card details.

Next, he has to fill out a police verification form and is then sent to the crime branch for questioning. The documentation takes 15 days.

This done, the candidate is sent for training and can only then be deployed.

“No one takes so much time to recruit a guard. I have been a guard for 15 years,” laughs Srikant, who is posted at a multi-storeyed building.

Police say Chauhan arrived in Mumbai from Uttar Pradesh on July 28, just two days before he was posted at the house of the star who has been granted Y category security following intelligence reports that he could be a target of militant groups.

Tops, the security agency that hired Chauhan, would not confirm this, insisting that it went through all the verification formalities.

“You definitely cannot get a police clearance in two hours. It’s not possible in the normal course. But if you have contacts higher up the ladder then I guess it’s not that tough,” says a police official.

Tops CMD Rahul Nanda says: “It was an urgent requirement as Shah Rukh wanted an armed security guard. He was referred to us by one of our employees, Dinesh Singh, who hails from the same village as Chauhan and who has been with us for the past eight years. In our haste, we did not do the needed psychoanalytical test. Further, he was also not trained for the period of six days which is our standard company policy. We thought he would have on the job training at the star’s residence.”

Kumar says there are 500 agencies in Maharashtra but only 160 are registered — of around 5 lakh people working as guards, 75,000 are authorised.

Police department sources claim only 10 per cent of the agencies in the country are registered and most guards are exploited.

The Security Association of India, an association of private security agencies, has requested the chief minister in a letter to implement the Private Security Agencies Regulation Act, 2005. “The act will help regularise the agencies,” says Kumar.