Dehradun, Feb. 16 -- 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 th...