Tall, lean, donning a wool coat and deerstalker hat and a smoking pipe pressed between his fingers. That’s Sherlock Holmes, a character who has become synonymous with crime-solving. Consulting detectives, however, come in all shapes and sizes and Deewan KS Puri was Punjab’s own Sherlock.
A prolific career as a civil servant aside, Puri’s life was defined by his passion and love for criminology — a field to which he contributed several tech and methodological advancements.
His son, Jagjit Puri, chronicles, in remarkably objective fashion, the life of the man who founded and led the Patiala Bureau of Identification for years, authored nine books, several articles journals and worked as a consulting expert for the Indian judiciary, princely states and the US-based intelligence service FBI even in his book “Dewan KS Puri - Indian Sherlock”.
And it all goes back to his child-like curiosity as his son recalls. “He was drawn to innovation and changes in the field, be it studying handwriting, getting his hands on an electric typewriter in the 70s, he was always up to something.”
The author recalls his father being summoned to examine a peculiar answer sheet at the Panjab University. “It didn’t take him long to figure out that the different handwriting on the same answer sheet belonged to the same person despite the apparent differences in style.”
{{/usCountry}}The author recalls his father being summoned to examine a peculiar answer sheet at the Panjab University. “It didn’t take him long to figure out that the different handwriting on the same answer sheet belonged to the same person despite the apparent differences in style.”
{{/usCountry}}The pressure on the pen and strokes were the same so both handwriting had to belong to the same person, he had concluded. Only the person was ambidextrous: one who can write using both hands. That was a word alien to most at the time, and even today still. Not for the forensics genius though.
KS Puri went on to build a long career on his skills, serving the judiciary for 60 years, dropping by to offer his expertise whenever a case required. Tales vary from the likes of the one mentioned before to more complex sagas involving contentious Rajya Sabha elections, but he remained level-headed through it all.
The man did not boast of an imposing stature like Sherlock. His humble and media-shy personality too stood in stark contrast with the famed detective’s narcissism. He looked up to the man from fiction still.
“My father was an avid reader and writer. As a handwriting expert, he also took a keen interest in pens and ink,” Jagjit Puri recalls.
KS Puri authored a number of pieces on police administration, many of which have been translated and donated to libraries by the namesake foundation being presided over by his son.
Through the continued endeavours of the Dewan KS Puri Foundation and books like “Indian Sherlock”, Jagjit hopes to not only carry forward his father’s legacy but inspire the next generation of Indian Sherlocks, wherever they might be.