Over 340 voter ID cards found on Narmada bank in MP; Cong seeks FIR

• 343 voter identity cards reportedly bearing Indore addresses found along the Narmada in Khargone district.

• Congress demands an FIR, an impartial probe and a search for more cards.

• Police direct an investigation after the revenue team seizes the recovered cards.

A total of 343 voter identity or electors' photo identity cards were found abandoned along the banks of the Narmada river in Mandleshwar town of Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district on Sunday, 25 October, prompting the Congress to demand an FIR and an impartial investigation.

Preliminary information suggests that the cards belong to voters in the Rau Assembly segment in neighbouring Indore district. Addresses in areas including Tilak Nagar and Aastha Palace in Indore were reportedly found on the cards. Mandleshwar is around 90 km from Indore.

The cards were discovered during a cleanliness drive along the riverbank by members of the Niswarth Seva Samiti, a social organisation. Volunteers collected the cards and informed the administration. A video showing the recovered identity cards subsequently went viral on social media.

Following the discovery, a team from the revenue department reached the site, prepared an inventory of the cards and seized them, according to local media reports. The circumstances in which the cards reached the riverbank remain unclear.

Khargone district Congress president Ravi Naik, accompanied by party workers, approached the Mandleshwar police station and submitted a complaint seeking registration of an FIR. The Congress questioned the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and demanded action against those responsible.

Naik also demanded that divers search the river for more voter identity cards. He warned that the party would gherao the police station if an FIR was not registered.

The Congress has sought an investigation into how such a large number of voter identity cards bearing addresses in another district came to be found together at the riverbank. The party has also demanded that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar be named in an FIR.

Former Madhya Pradesh minister and Congress leader Vijaylaxmi Sadho also shared a video of the recovered cards and called for an investigation and action against those found responsible, according to a report by Navbharat Times.

Some reports have raised questions about the dates printed on the cards. Congress leaders have reportedly questioned how cards bearing the year 2016 could be in digital format, referring to the introduction of electronic voter identity cards in 2021. The dates and format of the recovered documents, however, would need to be examined as part of the investigation.

Mandleshwar sub-divisional police officer Shweta Shukla said the cards were found during the cleanliness drive along the Narmada. The revenue team had seized them, and the police station in-charge had been directed to investigate the matter. The police had also received a complaint from the Congress, she added.

With PTI inputs