The notorious Sheikh Hyder, who let loose a reign of terror in Odisha for almost more than a decade from 1995 to 2005, had rags-to-riches story in the sense that he was pulling rickshaw before making his entry into the underworld.
Hyder’s crime records date back to nearly three decades. In early 90s, he had allegedly started his anti social activities as the henchman of deceased Rabin, who was a dreaded criminal.
Hyder’s notoriety had spread overnight after he shot dead criminal Bula Sethi on the Kendrapara court premises in 1991. He was injured in an encounter with police in 1997.
Initially till the early nineties, Hyder and Suleman Malik alias Suleman were a part of the gang led by Tito. But subsequently they either joined hands or parted ways over establishing hegemony over one another, besides due to quarrelling over booty share. This led to a series of gang wars.
Hyder and Tito used to single out corrupt officers and unscrupulous contractors and traders. They used to force them to pay hafta or protection money.
Political patronage and funding had also allegedly emboldened the gangs as they were reportedly used during election campaigns for the political leaders in past years. They allegedly used to indulge in bank robberies, dacoities and contract killing but their regular source of income was said to be generated from the hafta.
Tito, in 2005, joined hands with his arch rival Hyder and later Hyder-Tito jointly switched over to tender fixing by terrorising the contractors in and outside the districts.
In May 2005, Hyder’s men shot dead Sulaiman’s younger brother Sheikh Chuna near the Stewart School in Bhubaneswar. Hyder was arrested and put in jail in this case. In March 2011, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hyder was also named as an accused in Sulaiman’s murder case, but he was acquitted.
Hyder led his gang from inside Bhubaneswar jail. He masterminded the abduction of Keonjhar mining businessman Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra and his driver with Rs 2 crore ransom demand in Bhubaneswar in May 2007. They killed Mohapatra and his driver.