MARGAO
The South Goa district Magistrate has ordered landlords/ tenants owner/ person of any house/ property in the district not to let/ sublet rent out any accommodation to any person unless and until he or she has furnished the particulars of the tenants to the police in-charge of the concerned area.
The order issued under Section 144 of the CrPC has mandated all the owners/ management of all hotels, lodging & boarding, private guest houses, paying guest accommodation, temporarily residential accommodation including that of religious bodies, to prohibit any visitors/ guests to check in without providing any photo identity proof such is Elections Card, Driving Licence, Smart Card, Employment Card, Aadhar Card or any other Identity proof duly issued by government.
This is perhaps the first time that the order under Section 144 has been imposed in South Goa by the district Magistrate in order to bring all landlords letting their premises to tenants sans tenant verification. The order will remain in force for 60 days.
The order has warned violators of punishment under Section 188 of the IPC.
The Magistrate has issued the order based on a report received from the district police Chief, South that criminals with an intention of committing crime in Goa, usually stay in hotel/ rented premises with fictitious names and bogus residential/ official addresses and telephone numbers and after commission of crime, it becomes difficult to identify culprits as the details furnished by them to the hotels and landlords are found fictitious bogus.
The police had stated that the anti-social criminal or undesirable elements can camouflage their identify for their operations, which may be illegally immoral and which may be required to be contained/ regulated and as hotel owners/ landlords have a tendency to rent out premises without verifying the antecedents of the person and information to local police.
