The Indian Express             27.08.2013

BMC to give award to sketch artist

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.