Ex-editor of ‘The Telegraph’ gets passport after months-long ordeal over SIR deletion

R Rajagopal, a former editor of The Telegraph, on Saturday received his renewed passport after a months-long ordeal that followed his removal from West Bengal’s voter rolls during the special intensive revision exercise, he told Scroll.

Rajagopal, who was editor of The Telegraph between 2016 and 2023, had applied to renew the document in February.

On June 27, he said that he had been removed as a voter in West Bengal during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in March, apparently because neither his nor his father’s name could be traced in the 2002 electoral rolls.

Rajagopal said that his name had been excluded by the Election Commission, citing “logical discrepancies”, which refer to situations such as a mismatch in parents’ names, a small age gap between parents and children or parents being recorded as having more than six children.

On June 17, the Regional Passport Office in Kolkata told him that the police had submitted an adverse verification report on his passport renewal application, citing his deletion from the voter rolls.

He added that he was informed that the alternative documents he had submitted were insufficient.

No additional documents sought

However, between then and the issuance of his renewed passport, the authorities sought no additional documents from Rajagopal, he told Scroll.

He said that Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan had...

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