25-year-old lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha has shaken up Mumbai. It has also stirred up an important but often neglected issue — the verification of security guards standing outside the city’s innumerable buildings. One of them — Sajjad Ahmed Ajiz Mughal alias Pathan (25) — killed Pallavi after unsuccessfully attempting to rape her at the latter’s Bhakti Park residence in Wadala. Cops have booked security agency AH Enterprises for hiring Pathan.

This is not the first time that a protector has turned predator. In the past, Mumbai police has arrested hundreds of watchmen who keep pouring into the city brandishing fake licences, often procured from Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh or Manipur. As these places are far away from the city, private security agencies rarely bother to authenticate the documents. With the crackdown, several such agencies came under the police scanner and licences of many were revoked. But a few years later, the drive lost steam.