Mohammad Sabuj Mia is alive and lives in Saudi Arabia. But in Bangladesh’s official records, he had been declared dead.
The Kishoreganj resident discovered this while trying to renew his passport after being seriously injured in a road accident. His NID had been deactivated.
The Hossainpur election office told him to return home and provide fingerprints to reactivate it. He did so, at a cost of nearly Tk4 lakh.
“When I contacted the election office, I was told it had happened by mistake,” Sabuj told TIMES.
Yet the office has no record of who applied to have him declared dead.
And Mohammad Sabuj Mia is far from the only one.
During the 2025 voter list update, 46,622 voters were removed from the rolls in Kishoreganj’s 13 upazilas. By August this year, 222 people listed as dead had successfully applied to be restored as living voters.
Many discovered the error while collecting old-age allowances, updating land records or renewing passports.
Under the rules, a death must be reported by family members and verified at several stages before a voter is removed from the roll.
But TIMES found cases involving allegedly fake applicants, identifiers who denied knowing the supposed deceased and claims of forged signatures. In some cases, election offices could not find the applications at all.
The findings come with the backdrop of National Birth and Death Registration Day being observed today.
Assistant teacher Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, who handled Sabuj Mia’s case, said all deletion applications he forwarded followed due process, with signatures and seals from family members and the local union parishad member.
He said it was the election office which was responsible if Sabuj Mia’s application could not be found.
Hossainpur Upazila Election Officer Alimul Razi confirmed that no application or related record could be found online or at the office.
Osman Gani, who worked there during the latest update, said the office could not avoid responsibility if the records were missing.
Who stands to gain?
Zahera Khatun, 88, of Khojargaon under Joyka union in Karimganj, discovered she had been declared dead when she tried to collect her old-age allowance. Her NID had been deactivated.
At the election office, she learnt that government records showed she had died on 25 January 2023.
A TIMES investigation found that Helal Uddin had applied to have Zahera declared dead, identifying himself as her brother. Zahera said she did not know him.
Jasim Uddin, member of Ward 2 of Joyka Union Parishad, was listed as an identifier but denied that the signature on the application was his.
Another identifier, teacher Mohammad Kamal Uddin, claimed the signatures belonged to Jasim Uddin and Helal Uddin, but said they were now denying involvement to avoid trouble.
Zahera’s son Asad Mia asked who had declared his mother dead if everyone was denying responsibility.
Zahera said her father’s family owns around 12 acres of land in which she has a substantial share. She suspects her brothers tried to have her declared dead to deprive her of the property.
TIMES could not obtain comments from Zahera’s brothers.
Ashraf Uddin Asad of Bogadia in Kishoreganj Sadar had a similar experience. He learnt while paying land tax that official records showed he had died in 2019, though no specific date was listed.
Ashraf said he did not know the person who had identified him as dead.
Halima Khatun, an assistant teacher at Nagua Government Primary School who was involved in the voter list update, completed the process while identifying herself as his neighbour. The application contained no name, seal or signature of any local elected representative.
Ashraf alleged that a group had long been trying to forcefully take his land. After failing to persuade him to sell, he said, they had him declared as dead to prevent him from selling or transferring it.
Halima declined to comment. Her husband, Nazmul Haque, said they had a house beside Ashraf’s and that this was why she identified herself as a neighbour.
He claimed Ashraf’s relatives had reported him dead and, because they had no NIDs, his wife signed as the identifier.
Kishoreganj District Election Officer Mohammad Morshed Alam said victims could take action against anyone who provided false information and that any election official found to have acted dishonestly would face action after investigation.
Senior lawyer Ashok Sarkar told TIMES, “The entire matter needs to be investigated. If a living person has been declared dead on the basis of false information, it could amount to a criminal offence, and there is scope to take legal action against those involved.”
Morshed Alam said a voter is removed only after information from family members is verified by a local elected representative, an identifying teacher and a supervisor.
He acknowledged that false information is not always detected immediately.
“Sometimes such incidents happen by mistake, while some people may also deliberately provide false information,” he said.
On the same issue, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said, “If any person is listed as dead without proper verification, the matter is extremely serious. We cannot, under any circumstances, violate a citizen’s rights. If such incidents have occurred, inform us in writing. We will investigate and see why this happened. Necessary measures will be taken.”
