In a first-of-its-kind intervention, Delhi Police used artificial intelligence (AI) to reconstruct the face of a man whose body was found near a flyover and then put up posters with his picture to gather clues about his identity.
The posters not only helped police identify the man but also led them to his killers, who have been arrested, according to police.
Police said the body was found near the Geeta Colony flyover on January 10 and an investigation was launched.
"For us, it was a blind murder case as no documents were found in the victim's pocket that could help us identify him. The body was taken into custody and... after 72 hours, doctors conducted an autopsy which revealed that he was strangled to death," a senior police officer said on Wednesday.
A team of 30 police personnel was formed to work on the case. The first challenge for the team was to establish the identity of the man.
"Utilising AI, we digitally reconstructed the victim's face with open eyes and changed the background. The same photo was uploaded on CCTN (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network) website, which connects police of different eight states, and more than 400 posters were distributed strategically in the national capital and shared digitally via WhatsApp groups till January 12," the officer said.
A breakthrough in the case was made when a man who saw a poster outside a police station identified the victim as his brother Hitendra.
During the investigation, it was found that Hitendra had a fight with two persons over a woman around two months ago. The accused persons met him on January 9 and strangled him to death. The accused were in an inebriated condition at the time of the incident, police said.
Four people, including a woman and a cab driver, have been arrested in connection with the case, police said.