BHOPAL: The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has led to the emotional reunion of a 45-year-old man with his mother after 22 years in western Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district.
Vinod Gayri, who works as a peon in a school in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, recently contacted the Khilchipura village panchayat in his native Mandsaur district to obtain voter ID card details of his parents, whom he had left more than two decades ago.
Vinod required the Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) details of his parents from the 2003 voter list of Mandsaur district to get his name added to the SIR 2025–26 electoral roll in Nagaur district, Rajasthan.
Members of the Khilchipura village panchayat subsequently informed his widowed mother about the development. The elderly woman then approached the staff of Nai Abadi police station in Mandsaur district, requesting them to trace her son, who had been missing for 22 years.
“We collected details from the gram panchayat and later located Vinod in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, where he was working as a school peon and living with his wife and two children. A police team was sent there and brought Vinod back to his native village, Khilchipura, in Mandsaur district, reuniting him with his mother after 22 years. Both became emotional and tearful when they met on Saturday. Vinod now wishes to take his mother and his mentally unstable elder brother to live with his family in Rajasthan,” said Kuldip Singh Rathore, in-charge of Nai Abadi police station, while speaking to TNIE on Sunday.
In 2004, Vinod had fallen in love with a girl who was a distant relative, against the wishes of his parents. When they refused to accept the relationship, the then 23-year-old left home, married the woman of his choice and never returned.
Despite repeated efforts by his parents and elder brother to trace him, Vinod could not be found. A few years later, his father passed away, leaving behind his wife and elder son.
However, the SIR process, through which Vinod sought to enrol himself as a voter, eventually led to his reunion with his mother after more than two decades.