Murder Mystery Solved: 3D face helps cops crack case

The 3D image of the victim, Vijay Kishor

The forensic department of the KEM Hospital has helped the Navghar police crack a two-month-old murder case with the help of facial reconstruction and 3D superimposition technology, which they used to put a face on the victim's severely fractured skull. Yogesh Rane, a worker at a tea stall in Mulund had in March smashed the face of his colleague Vijay Kishor and burnt his upper body for laughing at him at the gym. He was caught after he attempted to kill another co-worker when the latter started asking him questions about Kishor's sudden disappearance.

The police were finding it difficult to identify the victim, whose body was found near Kelkar College in Mulund on March 27. The upper body was burnt to the bone while the lower part was intact when the cops found the corpse. When the police failed to identify the body after combing through 2,000 missing person's files, they approached the KEM forensic department for help. As Kishor's family members, who live in Uttar Pradesh, were unaware about his disappearance, no missing person's complaint was filed here.

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The forensic team, headed by Dr Harish Pathak and Dr Hemlata Pandey, joined the fractured skull and reconstructed the disfigured face on the basis of jaw bones measurement, chin line, nose cavity and analysing the skin. Though the police had a face, they couldn't find the victim's identity until the alleged accused attempted a second murder.

Laughing at accused Yogesh Rane, 33, over a silly issue cost Kishor his life. "Yogesh is a gym freak who would take any comment on his fitness to heart. One day, while he was exercising, a lose screw from an equipment fell down, to which Kishor jokingly laughed. However, instead of ignoring it, Rane got angry and decided to take revenge," said a senior officer from Navghar police station. "He took Kishor behind Kelkar College and got him drunk, after which he smashed his head with a stone and burnt his upper body to conceal his identification on the night of March 26," he added.

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The site where the victim's body was found. Pics/Rajesh Gupta

In April, he plotted another murder - of his another colleague who became suspicious after Kishor's disappearance and started questioning Rane. However, Rane's plan didn't succeed this time around as Nawaz Nepali ran away as the former tried to smash his head. He then filed a complaint with the police, which arrested Rane under on attempt to murder charges. During investigation, the police found that Rane was a serial offender and another murder case was registered against him in Raigad.

The revelations led the police to suspect that Rane was behind Kishor's murder too. The police showed the facial reconstruction image of Kishor to Nepali who confirmed his identity. Finally, after getting an accurate facial image post-identification and matching Kishor's DNA with that of his brother, the police filed added a murder case Rane.

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