MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA
Last July, Balkhu-based businessman Navaraj Bhusal’s hardware store was bombed after he refused to pay extortionists. Based on Bhusal’s description, a sketch of the suspect was drawn up and identified as Surya Timilsina of Kavre. The police then tracked down Timilsina’s mobile number and within two weeks, it made two arrests.
Similarly, in April, three criminals accused of kidnapping businessman Rajesh Kumar Agrawal of Kalanki were captured on the basis of their sketches. Facial composites also provided an important breakthrough in the high profile investigation of the murder of Islamic Nepal Sangh’s President Faijan Ahmed. However, the accused are still at large.
Yogesh Maharjan, who joined the Nepal Police in 2009, is the man behind the drawings. While still in training, the 28-year-old graduate of Lalit Kala Campus was asked to sketch the faces of the gunman and two accomplices who shot CEO of National Television Yunus Ansari in the premises of the Central Jail in Sundhara. After Indian national Manmit Singh was caught, Maharjan made sketches of the two other suspects based on Singh’s description and both were quickly arrested.
Surya Timilsina, who planted a bomb in Balkhu based businessman Navaraj Bhusal's store this July, were both arrested based on their facial composites drawn by policeman Yogesh Maharjan.
Maharjan’s superiors were so impressed by his skills and accuracy that they made him the official composite artist. “Sketches are especially useful in cases where the culprits have not been identified or are on the run and used particularly by the Interpol,” says SSP Bijay Kayastha, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime branch.
Facial composites are based on an eyewitness or a victim’s memory of the suspect and form an integral component of modern day criminal investigation. The more coherent and detailed the description, the higher the chances of arrests. In his three years of experience, Maharjan says that victims are more reliable than witnesses. Former DIG Bharat Joshi, however, believes that composites are only effective if they can lead to a telephone number.
Even though sketches have been instrumental in solving several cases, it is low on the priority list of the Nepal Police. Currently, Maharjan is the only composite artist in the entire force and he too has no formal training in the art. Earlier freelance artists were hired on a need basis. SSP Kayastha admits that at least two artists are required in all five development regions to make investigations more successful.
While forensic science has made tremendous progress in neighbouring countries, not even one per cent of that technology is available in Nepal. Forget a forensic lab, Maharjan has no access to any other software or tools besides the very basic Adobe Photoshop, a graphics editing program. Even free softwares on the internet are not very reliable when sketching Nepali faces because they use western features as templates.
“For more accurate results, we need locally-made software,” explains Maharjan. But until that happens, he plans to travel to as many districts as possible to study the diverse facial features of fellow Nepalis.