KOLLAM: Five hours was all it took for Smitha and Shajith, a married couple, to complete the sketch of the accused who kidnapped a six-year-old girl in Oyoor. They are C-DIT employees and natives of Neeravil. When the accused were caught, people were amazed to see the accuracy of the sketch and the great work done by them after listening to a six-year-old.

Earlier, the sketch drawn in the Perumbavoor case had drawn severe criticism as it had no resemblance to the accused. But the sketch drawn in the incident in Oyoor turned out to be perfect. The couple was assigned as per the instructions of ACP Pradeep Kumar. Shajith said that they started drawing the picture after reaching the Victoria hospital where the child was under observation. They introduced themselves as art teachers and playfully interacted with the child and asked about the appearance of the accused and drew it on the paper.

"If the statement is given by an adult, the first question will be about the age of the accused. Since she was a child, we pointed to people around us and asked, 'do they look old as this person?'. At each stage, the picture was shown to the child. When the picture was finished, the girl nodded. As it was a sketch, a colorued version was given to the police.", the couple said.