Delhi Police Uses AI to Crack Murder Case and Bring Victim Back to Life | Delhi News
Technology transformed a photograph and “resurrected” the deceased – “opening” his closed eyes, bringing back lip colour and changing the background – all to help make his face recognisable.Cops got about 2,000 posters made and pasted them at bus stops, police stations and railway stations. The family members of the victim spotted one when they went to a police station to report his disappearance.
The man was identified as 35-year-old Hitendra Singh, who used to work at an audit firm. His body had been found on Jan 10 at Golden Jubilee Park near the Geeta Colony flyover. Once identified, the cops analysed his mobile phone and internet activity, scanned footage from more than 800 CCTV cameras and zeroed in on three of his friends – Rocky, James and Annie. The trio had allegedly killed Singh over a monetary dispute and dumped his body later. They have been arrested.
To solve the case, identifying the victim was crucial for police. According to DCP (North) Manoj Meena, there were several challenges. “For instance, correcting facial discoloration, especially restoring the lip colour from blue to a natural pink. Then, removing dirt from the face and restoring freshness, modifying the original background, enhancing the eyes to make them look like those of a living person. We contacted an AI expert and several tools were used to reconstruct the face,” he said.
Another officer said usually, if a complainant sees the suspect, a sketch is prepared to identify the person. “In some cases, we create multiple sketches of absconding criminals, predicting how they might look with different hairstyles or eye colour. In this case, our aim was similar. We simply wanted to see how the victim might have looked with open eyes and against different backgrounds,” he said, adding that the photo was generated in two hours.
He said that in most cases, it was found that UIDB (unidentified dead body) posters don’t offer a clear picture of the deceased.
Once the AI-generated photo of Singh was ready, “hue-and-cry notices” were printed and pasted at key locations. On Jan 14, the victim’s family went to Chhawla police station to file a “missing person” report, saw the notice and immediately contacted the Kotwali station house officer (SHO).
“During investigation, we learnt that Singh was last seen with James, Rocky and Annie on Jan 9. When James was contacted, he said Singh was with him till 10.30pm and had left alone. However, the phones of the three suspects were soon found to be off, which raised suspicion. Raids were conducted at their possible hideouts in Delhi-NCR and they were finally arrested,” the officer said.
The accused were identified as Paramveer Singh alias James, Harneet Singh alias Ricky and Priyanka alias Annie. During interrogation, they confessed to executing the murder on Jan 9 night. They also told cops that Singh and James had a massive argument, so they planned to eliminate him. The victim was allegedly called on the pretext of a party and strangled with a bedsheet. Police later seized the car allegedly used for dumping the body.