OFFTRACK: KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL

Art Of Crimebusting

Lawbreakers evade arrest-until this portrait-maker gets into the act

When the Kolkata Police were recently scrambling for leads in the abduction of shoe baron Partha Pratim Roy Burman and the murder of CPI(M) leader Sailen Das, they turned to a short, bespectacled man whose only weapons against crime are a HB pencil and an eraser. But it's not without reason that the law enforcers trust him. Nitin Kumar Biswas is known in police circles as the man who "sees" with his ear.

Biswas is a four-time entrant in the Limca Book of Records for an esoteric art called "portrait parley": the drawing of people's portraits from verbal descriptions. The method is believed to have been invented in the 1950s by American Hugh McDonald who drew the people he "saw" in his dreams. Biswas is one of a handful in the world-certainly the only one in India-to have mastered this, well, art. In his 30-year career, the unlikely crimefighter has drawn 80 portraits of criminals based on descriptions given by witnesses-and seen many of his subjects put behind bars by officers banking on his uncannily accurate sketches. In the Burman and Das cases his drawings aided the investigation, but as a colleague points out, "Nitin likes to hide behind his drawings."

With good reason. Biswas laughs it off but danger is undeniably an occupational hazard. He has helped the police track down many criminals, so it's better for him to keep a low profile. Biswas claims he leads a charmed life-with other people to worry for him. In 1982, when he was called to Delhi by the CBI to draw portraits of the two young men who had killed Punjab's Nirankari Baba, Biswas remembers being cooped up in the forensic lab for a month. If he stepped out to the balcony, paranoid colleagues would shoo him in. When Biswas finally returned to Kolkata, it was in disguise: he boarded the unreserved compartment of a Howrah-bound train clad in a hitched-up dhoti and a dirty shirt.

Biswas' talent may have won him laurels in the force, but it was frowned upon by his family. Growing up in a remote village in Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, Biswas learnt drawing by imitating local artists painting landscapes during Durga Puja. But his older brother used to tear up the paintings and throw his paintbox away. "I just wasn't interested in academics," says Biswas, "and my parents thought art wouldn't get me anywhere." But it did, though it took almost 15 years. In 1976, when Biswas was holding an exhibition of paintings-mostly portraits-at a Kolkata gallery, chief guest E.N. Renison, the then CBI chief, threw him a challenge. "Draw me," Renison ordered. "Someone had told him I was very good with a pen, so he wanted to test me," says Biswas. He watched Renison closely for a minute-then looked away and dashed off an amazing likeness in seven minutes flat. "I realised later that while I was studying Renison, he was studying me," says Biswas. The CBI chief then offered him an unusual job: giving a face to faceless criminals.

Biswas' basic ground rule is: no matter how urgent, never rush into a sketch. He follows an elaborate method of gathering information, starting by asking witnesses a long list of standard questions: colour of hair and eyes, moustache or clean-shaven, tall or short. Inarticulate witnesses are often taken into a crowded office and asked to identify a person who resembles the culprit. Then Biswas likes to visit the scene of the crime. In 1986, when he was helping the Rajasthan police track down the assailants of businessman Prakash Puri, he spent three days lounging at a tea stall close to where Puri had been stabbed, studying the distinguishing characteristics of a Rajasthani face. He began to question witnesses only on the third day. Biswas has also helped track down the kidnappers of eight-year-old Abhishek Verma in Guwahati in 1996. A few years ago, when actor Sushmita Sen's grandfather's house in Kolkata was burgled, Biswas' sketches helped book the robbers. He can also draw faces from forensic evidence like skulls, teeth and bones.

Biswas remains unmoved by computer wizardry in recreating portraits of criminals. "The picture can never be accurate if you have to choose from a fixed set of eyes, noses and eyebrows," he says. "It needs a human touch." And perhaps a keen ear like his.