Parents hire detectives to keep an eye on children vacationing in Goa

The next time you head to Goa for the year-end break, take special care to plan your itinerary — one of the several unknown faces that you come across may actually have been tailing you all through your visit. When Arti Chhabra was questioned by her parents about her late night parties at Anjuna while holidaying in Goa, she was aghast. What shocked her more were the pictures her parents had of her wild celebrations in this coastal state.

Arti's parents had hired the services of a private investigating agency to track her movements in this 'terrifying' coastal state. Faced with the growing reports of crimes against tourists, especially those targeted at women in Goa, concerned parents are now turning to private investigators in a bid to keep track of their kids partying here. These demands, which have increased in the last two years, see a spurt mainly during the New Year's eve when Goa becomes the most coveted destination of all partygoers.

"It's mainly during the new year's celebrations that we get such enquires. This has increased in the past few years after crimes in Goa started being highlighted by the news channels," said Willnova Fernandes, Proprietor, Cobra Personnel Intelligence Services.

The demands are many - to know if the person is using drugs, the kind of friends that keep him company to suspicious spouses checking their partners' fidelity.

So while one heads for a 'chilled out' break in Goa, parents and relatives are busy transfering information such as photographs, hotel details, holiday-plans and the number of friends giving him company to a private agency, which starts its job from the moment one sets foot into the state, and continues till the time he embarks on the flight, or the train, back home.

Investigators are expected not only keep an eye on a person's movements, but also collect proofs – like pictures and videos. They could even go to the extent of tapping phone conversations, and make efforts to befriend you. It's all part of their job.

Goa, increasingly, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, prompting people to take these "extra precautions.'' Often referred to as a hippie's paradise, crimes in this coastal state have increased many-fold in the last couple of years. Its image as holidayer's paradise took a severe knock after the infamous alleged rape and murder of British schoolgirl Scarlet Keeling in February 2008.