Bug Sweeping Services in Assam

Assam is the commercial centre of the north east, and almost all of its corporate and legal activity concentrates in Guwahati. The sweep is the same wherever we work: radio-frequency analysis, a non-linear junction detector that finds electronics left switched off, optical and thermal checks and a physical inspection. What this page sets out is the layer around it, which in Assam includes one statute that gives you more leverage over a business premises than almost anywhere else in India.

One commissionerate, and police districts that do not match revenue districts

Guwahati is the only police commissionerate in Assam. Everywhere else, including Dibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat, Nagaon and Tinsukia, you deal with a district superintendent, so the chain runs officer in charge, sub-divisional officer, superintendent, range deputy inspector general, and then the state police chief. Descriptions of any other Assam city as a commissionerate are wrong.

The Guwahati commissionerate covers the whole of Kamrup Metropolitan district with no rural superintendent inside it, which is the opposite of the arrangement in states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu where a city force usually sits beside a rural one. The rural force here, Kamrup Rural, is a separate district across the Brahmaputra with its own superintendent at Amingaon.

One structural quirk is worth knowing if you are looking up which unit covers an address. Assam's police districts do not map one to one onto its revenue districts: there are thirty five revenue districts but the police list runs to about thirty three districts plus the commissionerate, and it includes units such as Sadiya, Hamren, Biswanath Chariali and South Salmara that have no revenue twin. A place can therefore sit in one district for administration and another for policing.

On districts themselves, Assam has reorganised twice recently and stale figures circulate. Four districts were merged away at the end of 2022, taking the count from thirty five to thirty one, and all four were restored in August 2023, putting it back to thirty five. Karimganj was renamed Sribhumi in November 2024, and the state's own portal has not caught up everywhere, so you will see both names on government pages.

181 is the women's helpline here, and an online complaint is not an FIR

Assam publishes 181 as the women's helpline, operating as 181 Sakhi and routed to the district one stop centre, and it is run by the social welfare side rather than by the police. That places Assam with Odisha and Bihar rather than with Punjab and Maharashtra, which use 1091. The number to lead with for any emergency is 112, which the state has been building out as a single response system. Children's matters go to 1098 and cyber financial fraud to 1930.

On reporting, be clear about what the portal actually does. An online submission through the state citizen portal is an e-complaint, and Assam Police describe it as being converted into an FIR only if it is found acceptable after the station verifies it. That conversion is a decision someone makes, not an automatic consequence of filing. A petition to a senior officer is a third thing again, an administrative representation rather than a criminal complaint. Voyeurism is a cognizable offence, so for a covert recording the route is the police station in person, or 112.

The state does list an e-FIR service, but we could not open the official page describing it and so we do not publish its eligibility limits. Treat the online portal as the way to create a paper trail rather than the way to start an investigation.

A statewide camera statute, and a separate Guwahati order on guest records

Assam is one of a small number of states with a general public safety statute that imposes a real camera duty, and it is worth knowing about because most people affected by it have never heard of it. Under the Assam Public Safety (Measures) Enforcement Act of 2023, establishments must put in place access control and cameras covering all entry and exit points and common areas, and must retain thirty days of footage and make it available to police when required. The definition of establishment reaches any place of business or office with at least five people, along with commercial and industrial premises, educational institutions, hospitals and, notably, residential buildings above ground plus two floors. Enforcement runs through a show cause notice, fines for the first and second months of default, and sealing of the premises after two months.

Two honest qualifications belong with that. Hotels and private hostels are not named in the Act; they are caught by category, as commercial establishments or as residential buildings above the height threshold, which is a reading rather than a quotation. And although the Act is on the statute book and mandatory on its face, we found no rules, no technical specification and no record of enforcement under it. So it is a reasonable basis on which to ask a business about its camera coverage and its footage policy, and not a basis on which to tell an operator they are in breach.

Separately, and for Guwahati only, the Commissioner of Police issued an order in August 2024 applying the Sarais Act to hotels, lodges, homestays and private hostels in the city. It requires the premises and the keeper to be registered with the Commissioner's office, forbids taking in a lodger before registration, and requires a written report to the local police station each day giving particulars of every guest who stayed the night before. Breach can mean a fine and closure. Enforcement has been active: in September 2026 police held meetings with homestay and lodge operators across the city requiring proper identity verification and a police helpline number displayed in every room, and premises were sealed. That order contains no camera requirement, and it applies in the commissionerate area rather than across Assam.

We found no advisory from Assam Police specifically about hidden or spy cameras in hotels, hostels, trial rooms or washrooms. What exists is operational rather than advisory: the guest verification drive and the Jalukbari investigation.

Cities in Assam covered in detail

These have a page of their own, with the local jurisdiction detail and the areas covered.

Districts and towns across Assam

Sweeps are arranged across the state, not only in the cities listed above. If your town is not named here it does not mean we cannot reach it, so please ask.

Questions about Assam