Declared Dead by Indian Government, Muslim Man in West Bengal Fights to Prove He Is Alive
Sheikh Peyar Ali, a resident of Dewannagar in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, is facing serious difficulties in accessing basic government services after being mistakenly declared dead in official records. As a result, his Aadhaar number has been deactivated.
Peyar Ali first discovered the problem when he tried to book a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder. After the booking failed, he contacted the concerned gas agency and was informed that the problem was related to his Aadhaar information.
To find out more, he visited the Midnapore Head Post Office. According to his family, officials at the Aadhaar centre informed them that his Aadhaar number had been deactivated because government records listed his status as ‘dead’.
Expressing his frustration, Sheikh Peyar Ali said, “My Aadhaar card has suddenly been deactivated, causing me various problems. To prove my existence and reactivate my Aadhaar, I now have to run from one office to another.”
Daughter Raises Concerns on Social Media
The issue was first brought to wider public attention by Peyar Ali’s daughter, Afrin Jabi. She is a national-level swimmer who has successfully crossed the English Channel. In a social media post, Afrin questioned how a physically healthy and living person could be declared dead in government records.
She wrote, “My father is very much alive, yet his Aadhaar records show him as ‘dead’, and that is why his Aadhaar has been deactivated.” She said the family visited the Aadhaar centre at Midnapore Head Post Office after facing problems while booking an LPG cylinder. Officials there confirmed that her father’s Aadhaar record carried a ‘dead’ status.
Expressing her anger, Afrin wrote, “A living person has been declared dead on paper! Does he now have to run from one government office to another just to prove that he exists?” She also questioned who was responsible for the error and which authority could resolve the problem. According to her, the family did not receive any immediate solution from the Aadhaar centre.
Ms. Afrin urged the local administration and relevant authorities to investigate the matter immediately and restore her father’s Aadhaar services. She said the purpose of a digital identification system was to make public services easier for citizens. However, forcing people to visit multiple offices because of incorrect information was deeply disappointing.
The family has also sought a clear explanation of the procedure for correcting such errors and identifying the authority responsible for restoring the records of someone mistakenly registered as dead.
Data Mismatch May Have Caused the Error: SDM
Midnapore Sadar Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Mohammad Marghub Ilmi said the problem could have resulted from inconsistencies between different sets of data. He said, “Such errors may occur due to data mismatches. To my knowledge, there have been two similar incidents in the past in which living people were mistakenly marked as ‘dead’. However, those errors were later corrected. Such mistakes can be rectified by visiting the Aadhaar correction centre in Kharagpur town.”
