‘My father was worried about not finding his name in SIR’

In a warren of undulating lanes in Borabanda, is the home of Shaik Mujbul Rahaman, a cab driver. On Sunday morning, he died at his home by suicide. “He was constantly scrolling videos and reels searching for information on SIR. He even went to Darususalam to check if the AIMIM can help him find his name on the rolls. We told him we will be able to find it eventually. But I had to bring down his body on Sunday,” says his son Yousuf Shaik pointing to the tin roof extension of the small house perched at the end of a hillock. Yousuf is also a cab driver with a private travel company.

The FIR complaint taken down by the police did not mention SIR as one of the triggers for self-harm. “We told the police that my father was depressed and had spent money to get his name on the SIR roll. It is strange it is not there on the complaint,” says Yousuf. Even the door number is also incorrect in the FIR.

“My grandfather’s name Mahboob Shaik is there on the roll, my brother’s name Shareef Shaik is there, but my father’s name is missing, as is my name,” says Yousuf as his children return home where only two people can walk abreast.

The area that is densely populated with people working in the informal sector where the rents range from ₹3,000 to ₹8,000 has an air of fear as men move about with forms. As we speak, Mohammed Ismael, who lives in the area arrives with the pre-filled Election Commission of India form of Shareef Shaikh. “Now both of you go and speak to the BLO to get your name on the rolls,” Ismael tells Yousuf with an air of urgency.

“Every house has some issue or the other. Many people here live in rented houses and move locations and they don’t remember where they were living in 2002 to map the constituency and polling booth to map correctly. The spellings are different. The BLOs say give all the documents that they can get instead of just one document creating a problem where most of the people are not educated,” says Ismael who collected the forms with the help of Congress MLA Naveen Yadav.