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How Bengal SIR prompted the return of a ‘dead man’ in UP's Muzaffarnagar
Sharif Ahmad, 79, from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, surprised his family on December 29 when he returned home after decades of being presumed dead.
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal reportedly prompted the return of a man whose family in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar had long presumed him dead.
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Seventy-nine-year-old Sharif Ahmad had been missing since 1997 and had allegedly moved to West Bengal after his second marriage following the death of his first wife, news agency PTI said in a report.
However, he returned home on December 29, 2025 to collect his documents for the SIR in West Bengal, the report said, citing his nephew Waseem Ahmad.
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“We tried to trace him over the years, even travelled to West Bengal and followed up the address provided by his second wife, but all attempts failed,” Waseem was quoted as saying. On account of no contact, his family and four daughters assumed he was dead.
But he surprised everyone with his return after decades, thanks to the SIR exercise for which he needed documents from his home.
It was a rather emotional homecoming as he returned to some changes in the family, including the death of his father, brother and many other close kin.
The emotional reunion brought joy to the family, Waseem said.
“Seeing him after so many years was a deeply moving experience for all of us,” he said.
After the brief visit, Sharif returned to West Bengal’s Medinipur district, where he lives with his family.
The SIR in Bengal was launched on November 4 and the draft roll was published on December 16. More than 5.8 million names of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters were dropped from the draft roll.
The SIR exercise, which has created a massive controversy in Bengal and received pushback from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), comes ahead of the elections to the 294-member assembly this year.
