Post-graduate student Mohammad Rafiq Shah lost 12 years of his life trying to prove his innocence in the 2005 DTC bus blast case because he was wrongly identified by one of the passengers.
Two sketches were made based on the description by two bus passengers. One of them later identified Mr. Rafiq as the person that he saw on the bus. All the counter evidence such as the letter of verification from the vice-chancellor of Kashmir University was completely ignored, said Rebecca John, Mr. Rafiq’s lawyer.
Sketches of suspects made by the police based on information given by eyewitnesses or victims can be notoriously unreliable. Out of the 36 sketches released by the Delhi Police last year — made for crimes such as murder, rape and robbery — only five culprits were caught on the basis of the renditions.
Low accuracy
A research conducted by the US Philadelphia Police Department in 2015 found that hand-drawn composites were accurate 9% of the time in producing a recognisable likeness to a suspect, while computer-generated composites had an accuracy of 5%.
There are several instances of innocent people being picked up by the police simply because their features matched the police sketches.
Innocent get caught
A 38-year-old resident of north Delh’s Jahangirpuri was picked up after Radhika Tanwar, a 21-year-old Delhi University student, was shot dead in 2011. “I was in my factory when I got a call from my wife that the police had come to my house. I went to the police station immediately and they put me in the cell for the rest of the day for questioning,” the man said, requesting anonymity.
The father of two daughters did not want to be identified as his trip to the police station has affected his reputation. “Though I was let out the next day, people still talk about the time that the police came to my house. It has brought a bad name to my family. I just wish this doesn’t become a issue when my daughters reach marriageable age,” he said.
‘Sketches are helpful’
The police, however, say that though the sketches might not always be 100% accurate, in certain cases it does help them nab the real culprits.
“The sketches only give a direction to our line of investigation,” said Taj Hassan, Delhi Police spokesperson.
“It often does not fix an identity, but there are cases where it has helped. We have had instances where people have immediately recognised the sketches of people from their neighbourhoods and workplace.”
“Even if in a few cases people are able to spot the person in the sketch, it becomes useful,” Mr. Hassan said.
The Delhi Police has about 20 officials that make sketches by using computer software. They started creating computerised sketches a decade ago.
Other artists are also brought on board on contract. The freelancers include students, full-time artists and independent investigators. Payment varies according to the hours put in, and the complexity of the case.
Jisha murder case
Last year, Thaslik, a salesman and an actor, started receiving abusive and threatening calls after his photo was paired with the suspect in the Jisha murder case in Kerala.
Mr. Thaslik’s photo was circulated on social media for ‘looking similar’ to the suspect.
On a Facebook video, Mr. Thaslik requested people not to defame him based on false information. Local newspaper reports also said that the man lost his job because of the negative publicity.
‘Process needs patience’
The whole process of getting information out of victims and eyewitnesses requires a lot of patience and perseverance, said Harminder Singh, an artist who has worked with the Delhi Police in many high-profile cases such as the murders of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, and Delhi University student Radhika Tanwar.
“You have to make sure that you extract maximum information without exerting the person too much. The rule is to stop questioning the moment the person is getting uncomfortable or stressed. One base model is prepared and as and when any new information is received the sketch is improved,” said Mr. Singh, who also runs a private detective agency.
Too many options
He said that although the police prefer computerised sketches, for being relatively quick, there are certain software constrains.
The software has over a 1,000 varieties of features—eyes, nose, and the shape of the face—which is shown to the witness to pick from. The range of options, however, often creates confusion.
For example, the description of “small eyes” leads to at least 50 varieties.
“I start with the shape of the head and then move to the eyes. These are the two most important aspects of a person’s features. I also constantly ask eyewitnesses if they have noticed any visible scars, tattoo or birth marks because these immediately jump out to a passerby,” Mr. Singh said.
He has also helped the department visually reconstruct faces of victims with severely marred faces.
Mahesh Yadav, another artist who draws on paper, said the trick of getting a portrait closest to the suspect is to get eyewitnesses to describe the suspect within a few days of the crime.
“As time passes, the memory of what they saw is not as accurate as it would be immediately after the crime. Violence, stress and experience of trauma also affect memory. After 48 hours of the incident, you very rarely get an accurate description,” said Mr. Yadav.
