Odisha Police Use AI To Catch Rape And Murder Accused

A 24-year-old man named Kunu Kisan allegedly killed an 18-year-old woman who had previously accused him of rape when she was a minor in Odhisa's Jharsugudu, according to a report in The Indian Express. The horrific murder involved the accused and his accomplice killing the woman by slitting her through and cutting her into pieces, with body parts thrown into two nearby rivers.

The killer had elaborately planned the crime: He was to lure the victim out of her aunt's house, take her to a secluded spot, kill her using a recently purchased knife and cut the body into pieces, disposing it off into the river. The killer even changed his bike's number plate, removed the stickers that could identify his motorcycle, and even wore a helmet throughout the act to avoid getting identified by CCTV cameras in the area.

But the killer did not account for the Jharsuguda Police's ultimate tool: Artificial Intelligence-equipped CCTV systems.

When the police force received a missing complaint for the woman on December 7, they acted swiftly and fed the AI CCTV camera systems with a picture of the woman. They found the visuals of the girl on board the motorcycle and two other men. AI then helped narrow the list of possible suspects using preexisting police criminal records. Eventually, police zeroed in on 24-year-old Kunu Kisan, a native of a village under the Lephripda police station in Odhisa.

The suspect confessed to his crimes during the investigation. The motive behind the murder was also clear. The accused was trying to force the victim to give a favourable statement in court during the next hearing on 15 December for the case involving rape charges against him under the POSCO act.

The victim had refused, and the accused hatched the plan to murder her along with his accomplice. But despite the meticulously planned murder, the accused could not scheme with the Jharsuguda Police and their crucial crime-busting AI partner.