Partially burnt identity documents found near a lodge in Sakleshpur town have prompted Hassan district authorities to order a police investigation, with officials seeking to determine how the documents reached the location, who burnt them and whether any offence was involved.
The discovery included voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and driving licences. Hassan deputy commissioner KS Latha Kumari directed assistant commissioner Hullumani Thimmanna to inspect the spot after media reports brought the matter to the administration’s attention.
Thimmanna inspected the location along with police personnel and other officials. He said the administration had taken the recovery of important identity documents in a burnt condition seriously. Officials recovered 38 documents during the inspection, including 26 voter ID cards, according to his statement.
The voter ID cards reportedly belonged to people from different districts, including Yadgir and Mandya. Thimmanna also said that around 30 to 40 Aadhaar cards were found. The report does not reconcile this separate Aadhaar estimate with the stated total of 38 recovered documents, and the final inventory will have to be established during the investigation.
Thimmanna, who also serves as the electoral registration officer, said the documents did not appear, based on the preliminary assessment, to be connected with the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. He said they may instead belong to migrant workers employed on coffee plantations in the Malnad region.
Many such workers live in quarters located on plantation premises, according to the preliminary explanation cited by the official. The possible connection to migrant workers remains unconfirmed, however, and the authorities have not established why documents belonging to people from different districts were found together near the lodge.
The circumstances surrounding the burning and disposal of the documents are still unclear. The administration has instructed police to register a first information report at the local police station and conduct a comprehensive investigation. The probe is expected to establish the origin of the documents, how they came to be discarded and the circumstances in which they were partially burnt.
Thimmanna said he would submit a report to the deputy commissioner after the inspection and investigation process advances. No further details about the identity of the document holders, the lodge or any suspected individuals were provided in the report.
