The Uttarakhand Police arrested 64-year-old Abdul Malik from Delhi on February 24. Malik, the police claim, mobilised and incited a mob against police and municipal officials in Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura locality on February 8.
Malik, however, has maintained that he was not in Haldwani that day. In a letter to Uttarakhand’s director-general of police, he has claimed that he was in Delhi, Noida and Faridabad on February 7 and February 8, meeting lawyers, politicians and his daughter – more than 250 km away from Haldwani.
Scroll traced his movements. Among those who corroborated Malik’s account is Balbir Punj, a former Member of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party. A hotel in Noida, where Malik purportedly stayed on February 7 and February 8, has records of him checking in and checking out. Finally, footage from a security camera confirms that Malik visited a lawyer in Greater Noida at his daughter’s home on the evening of February 8.
Malik is a prominent Haldwani-based businessman who has dabbled in national politics. He has now been dubbed the “mastermind” of the violent clash between the Uttarakhand police and Banbhoolpura residents on February 8, which erupted after the town’s Municipal Corporation demolished a madrasa and a mosque built and managed by Malik.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.