How Tirupati temple’s facial recognition system helped cops arrest a man who murdered a child

A team from South Mahalunge MIDC police station under the Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested the woman identified as Basrin Mehboob Shaikh (27), a resident of Dharmapuri in Parli taluka of Beed district. She and her partner Ram Vinayak Kajewad were charged with criminal conspiracy and murder of her six-year-old son Awez.

Basrin and Kajewad had been living together at Kajewad’s house in Kuruli village in Khed taluka. Basrin is separated from her husband. Basrin and Kajewad thought of her-six-year old son as a hurdle in their relationship. The two hatched a conspiracy to murder Awez and pass off his death as cardiac arrest. The two murdered the boy by drowning his head in a bucket and hitting his head against the wall and ground.

After killing the boy, Basrin and Kajewad took his body to her hometown of Dharmapuri in Parli taluka of Beed and told her family he died of cardiac arrest. Awez’s father’s family suspected foul play and the police were informed. As autopsy revealed injuries, Parli police from Beed informed Pimpri Chinchwad police and murder probe was launched.

Basrin was arrested on April 8 and a search was launched for her Kajewad, who is a native of Ambajogai in Beed.

How AI-based facial recognition helped

“After dropping Basrin and the body of Awez, Kajewad had fled. He was travelling in the car that he owned and drove as a cab. He then came to Pune. But around this, the murder had not come to light and no one was looking for him between April 4 and 8. After coming to Pune from Ambajogai, he came to his rented room in Pune and also stayed with a friend for a day. But when he got a call from some people from his village asking what had happened, he realised that police will soon probe the case and close in on him. He then dumped his car in Baner. Before heading for Pune Railway station, he destroyed his phone by breaking it.” said an officer who is part of the probe.

“But as we began the probe, we took out the call data records of his cell number till time of its destruction. As we investigated the people he had called till then, we found out that he was going to Tirupati. We sent one of the investigation teams to Tirupati and another team was sent to Ambajogai. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the organisation that oversees the famous Venkateswara temple has installed an AI based facial recognition technology. The system has been put in place primarily for better management of the pilgrimage, prevent impersonation and fraudulent activities and ease accommodations and access control. This system can give the location of a person if he or she is spotted by any of the cameras installed across the city.” the officer added.

He further said, “After coming to know of the system, we contacted the authorities and shared the images of Kajewad with them. We carefully traced the movement of Kajewad in Tirupati using this system and found out that he had stayed in Tirupati for a day and had taken a particular train the next day. He was last captured on the cameras at the railway station. Our probe revealed that he deboarded the train prior to the Parli station in Beed when the train had stopped for a crossing. He was subsequently placed under arrest on April 17.” Kajewad is currently in police custody.