Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Yogesh Maharjan, 28, has made a career out of turning face recollections of witnesses into sketches to be used to trace the suspects.
Kirtipur-born Maharjan, who dreamed about Disney animations and began work as a book illustrator, holds a unique job in the police force. [break]
Most criminal sketch artists, who are also commonly called forensic artists, already have another law enforcement-related job to do. But Maharjan is among a few forensic artists in the Nepal Police with over 300 criminal sketches to his credit already.
A sketch of a suspect (left) drawn by police Assistant Sub-inspector and forensic artist Yogesh Maharjan on August 1 on the basis of eyewitness descriptions and the suspect’s picture after his arrest on August 3.
The sketches of absconding criminals connected with the murder of Muslim leader Faizal Ahmad in 2011 and Supreme Court Justice Rana Bahadur Bam in 2012 are some of his memorable pieces.
He said he also liked his sketches of the friends of Manmeet Singh, the purported Indian contract-killer who shot Central Jail inmate Yunus Ansari, he informed.
Showing some of the sketches from a congested room at the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Hanuman Dhoka, he said, “I had never thought of joining the Nepal Police and sketching the faces of absconding criminals. But with relatives interested in drawing and my brother wishing to see me join the police, this eventually came about,” Maharjan recounted.
Then DSP Hirdaya Thapa of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, who happened to see some of his sketches during a training period, helped to get him into sketching the faces of criminal.
“On a cold day three years back, he asked me if I could sketch the faces of some criminals at large. I said yes, and since that time I have been sketching faces based on descriptions given by other people,” he said.
His job is to turn the recollections of eyewitnesses into life-like sketches, and it has always been a challenging job, he said. He takes the identifying features of a suspect´s face and assembles them one by one like a picture puzzle to create an image. He then tallies the sketch on the paper with the image in the minds of the eyewitness.
Yogesh Maharjan
Maharjan faces problems such as unclear descriptions resulting from eyewitnesses who are unclear in their own minds, and a lack of knowledge about the variety of faces to be found across Nepal.
Everyone has eyes, a nose and a mouth, but there are several other things that stand out differently, he said. “Sometimes a criminal´s face turns out to be totally different from the sketch. So I need more diversified study of the faces and technological aid, which has not been possible so far due to a budget crunch,” he added.
When an accused is arrested, he is in the greatest hurry to see the face, he said laughing. If the sketch doesn´t match the real face, he feels embarrassed. “I first look at the eyes and then the nose of the arrested individual.”
“I see the criminals through the eyes of the witnesses or the victims, so my work is totally dependent on others,” he said and requested people to be more observant if they witness any crime as that would not only make the job of the police easier but also help prevent innocent individuals being arrested. As per his experience in forensic art, educated and young people describe faces more correctly, he added.
Many aspiring criminal sketch artists sharpen their skills through workshops, academic courses and international training. Facial structure and drawing techniques with respect to age, race and gender are some important aspects involved. “But we are far behind in such learning opportunities and remain compelled to depend on natural talent,” he said.
“We don´t have plans to buy software that could help forensic art. But the work of such artists has been always helpful in curbing crime,” said DIG Nawaraj Silwal, spokesperson of Nepal Police.
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