Overview
- Local residents and a group of BJP workers forced open a Tangra Trinamool Congress office that had been shut since the May 4 election results and discovered a cupboard full of identity papers.
- Reports differ on the total recovered, with one account saying around 100 documents and another saying nearly 300; seized items include Aadhaar cards, voter IDs and ration cards.
- A local man, Soumen Vicky Das, said he found his missing Aadhaar among the recovered papers, and other residents reported that some cards belonged to people in the neighbourhood.
- Kolkata Police say they have seized the documents, are verifying their authenticity with issuing authorities and have asked residents to file written complaints as the investigation proceeds.
- The discovery follows a similar recent find at another former TMC office and has prompted allegations by BJP figures that papers were kept to stop people voting or to enable fake IDs, but those claims remain unverified.