Daijiworld Media Network - Mandsaur

Mandsaur, Jan 12: The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has led to an emotional reunion of a 45-year-old man with his mother after a gap of 22 years in western Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district.

Vinod Gayri, currently working as a peon in a school in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, had contacted the Khilchipura village panchayat in his native Mandsaur district seeking voter identity details of his parents. He required the Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) information from the 2003 voter list to get his name included in the SIR 2025–26 electoral roll in Nagaur.

During the process, members of the village panchayat informed Vinod’s widowed mother about the inquiry. The elderly woman then approached Nai Abadi police station in Mandsaur, requesting help to trace her son who had gone missing over two decades ago.

Police officials collected details from the gram panchayat and traced Vinod to Nagaur district, where he was living with his wife and two children. A police team brought him back to Khilchipura village, leading to a tearful reunion between mother and son on Saturday.

In-charge of Nai Abadi police station Kuldip Singh Rathore said Vinod now wishes to take his mother and mentally unstable elder brother to live with him in Rajasthan.

Vinod had left home in 2004 after his parents opposed his relationship with a distant relative. He married against their wishes and never returned, despite repeated attempts by his family to locate him. His father passed away a few years later, leaving his wife and elder son behind.

Ironically, it was the voter enrolment exercise, initiated to update electoral rolls, that finally brought the long-separated family back together after 22 years.