Overview
- Residents and BJP workers reported caches of identity documents on Sunday, prompting police to seize materials from a Trinamool Congress office in Bidhannagar and to open cases tied to a separate find in Birbhum.
- At the Basanti Devi Colony office in Bidhannagar, officers recovered more than 100 Aadhaar cards, with many still in sealed postal envelopes, along with land papers locked in a briefcase.
- In Birbhum’s Nanoor area, a large number of voter ID cards were found scattered near the home of a former booth-level officer, who said old cards stored during house work may have been tossed out, as police questioned her and one IANS report said she was arrested.
- A third recovery in West Midnapore’s Garbeta involved BJP supporters pulling MNREG job cards and voter IDs from a TMC office, adding to claims that documents were collected from residents before past votes.
- BJP leaders say the finds show organized efforts to keep people from voting, while a local TMC councillor denied any role and asked for a full investigation, with the outcome likely to hinge on chain-of-custody and whether officials used the documents to block ballots.