A village headman (Gaon Bura) of Baligaon in Morigaon district's Mikirbheta revenue circle was nabbed for allegedly duping locals into enrolling their names in the electoral roll.

The arrested village head was identified as Irfan Ali.

The arrest was made under the direction of District Commissioner of the Morigaon, Devashish Sharma.

Speaking to the media, Morigaon District Commissioner, Devashish Sharma said, “We learned from a Booth Level Officer (BLO) at Baligaon's B3 polling station that Irfan was involved in duping individuals under the guise of enrolling their names in the electoral roll. This comes after the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Assam recently revealed the integrated Draft Electoral Roll of Special Summary Revision (SSR) 2024, and the names of various people in the stated location were not enlisted. Irfan was apprehended by police, and after a thorough investigation, we can estimate how much money he had taken from the local villagers.”

The DC also suspected that Irfan, who had the title of village head (Gaon Bura), had fraudulently enrolled several such names in the electoral roll.

“One of those scammed by Irfan claimed to have handed him roughly Rs 21,000 in exchange for having his name entered into the electoral roll. Many more people are afraid to admit that they paid Irfan money for the same reason. A village head is a responsible citizen of the government at the grassroot level, and such behaviors are quite concerning. We have yet to determine how many village heads and BLOs are engaging in such illegal actions. As a result, I convened an emergency meeting to conduct an immediate review of the situation,” added the Morigaon DC.