The Indian Express 27.08.2013
BMC to give award to sketch artist
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with a special award for his
sketches that helped the Mumbai police nab, within three days, the five
suspects allegedly involved in the gang-rape of a photojournalist at
Shakti Mills on August 22.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Mohan Adtani, along with Mayor
Sunil Prabhu and education committee chairman Manoj Kotak, announced the
special category prize Monday. The awardee will receive a cheque of Rs
10,000, a trophy, certificate, shawl and a coconut.
Yadav, 48, has been a drawing teacher with BMC’s Chembur
Education Society’s Primary School for the past 28 years. For 25 of
these years, he has helped the police prepare sketches of suspects based
on accounts of eyewitness or victims of any crime, for free. In the
last four months alone, his sketches have helped the police crack 12
cases.
A graduate from JJ School of Arts, he will be bestowed with the award for “special social work” on Teachers’ Day, September 5.
“We are creating this separate award category for teachers who
are making great contributions in the social sphere and helping in
issues that have a huge impact in our city. The BMC is proud to confer
this honour first on Yadav whose sketches have helped the Mumbai police
nab the gang-rape suspects in a short span of time,” Prabhu said.
Yadav said, “It is a great feeling when an organisation you work
for recognises your efforts. It gives me a sense of pride to help the
police. When I draw, I try to make victims speak. I try to understand
their psychology first. I have become so used to it over the years that
some sketches can be drawn within half-an-hour.”
“It is important to know the right description for drawing
sketches of suspects. In the Mahalaxmi gang-rape case, the sketches were
drawn based on the description the victim’s male friend gave,” he said.
