By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 12 Feb: Abdul Malik, stated to be the mastermind of the Haldwani violence, is a hardcore criminal who has spent some years in jail on murder charges. He had a humble beginning as a rice seller but soon graduated to petty crimes and then major ones, including illegal mining. He is now stated to own property worth several crores. He also has considerable influence in his community in Haldwani.
The 62-year-old Malik has been absconding since the day of the incident. Police teams are raiding various places to arrest him. He remains out of reach of the police. Over the past three days, many mainstream news channels were claiming that he had been nabbed from Delhi. This news did not turn out to be true.
Apart from the property that is legally owned by him, Malik also claims ownership of a large chunk of government land. He claims that this property had been leased out to him by Haldwani Nagar Nigam and the Railways for a 99-year period. A large portion of government land encroached upon him and his family members has been sold to illegal settlers by him on stamp papers of nominal value of Rs 50 and Rs 100, each.
People living in Banbhulpura area claim that, in 1937, about 60 acres of the encroached land and its surrounding areas were taken on lease by their ancestors. However, some admit that the lease had been long cancelled and the land vested in the government. Originally it was owned by the Railways but the maintenance of the land was handed over to Haldwani Municipal Corporation, which obviously failed to take care of the land and let Abdul Mailk and his family encroach on it. Malik settled a large number of Muslim immigrants on a major portion of this land by ‘selling’ it to them through stamp papers of small denomination though these sales were obviously not registered with any authority. This illegal sale also contributed significantly to his illegal income. Malik had settled in Haldwani as a young boy and used to sell rice with his father and five brothers before turning a criminal. He is learnt to be a graduate.
He later cultivated deep political connections with the Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders and had also contested elections on the Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket in undivided UP. He, later, joined hands with liquor ‘mafioso’ Ponty Chaddha and, with him, entered the business of illegal mining. He is also stated to own several properties and businesses in Haryana and Chandigarh. He landed in jail for several years in the case of murder of a SP leader in Haldwani in the late nineties. Fond of commuting in luxury cars, he moves around with several armed bouncers for his protection. Local people claim that Abdul Malik had gained considerable influence in his community by building an illegal madrasa and mosque on government land so that he could manage to save his encroachment in the name of religious structures. A recent video of him allegedly arguing with and threatening senior officers of the Haldwani Municipal Corporation has gone viral. He also claims the backing of several Congress leaders in the state, having come close to them allegedly after the formation of the separate state of Uttarakhand, as the influence of SP had waned in the state.
