Would you still eat from him?
HIS licence is still suspended.
And he has not been dishing out his famous Indian rojak since last April, following a food poisoning incident linked to his stall, then located at the Geylang Serai Temporary market.
The stall allocated to him in the newly built Geylang Serai market remains unoccupied and unnamed.
His connection to what was Singapore’s worst case of mass food poisoning, which claimed two lives, is by now indisputable.
But Mr Sheik Allaudin Mohideen, 70, has not stayed idle. At least not for the past week or so.
The New Paper has learnt that the rojak king has been busy preparing for the opening of another stall at the new Geylang Serai market in Jalan Turi.
Stallholders there have spotted him at the stall, located two rows away from the stall originally allocated to him, almost every day in the past week.
This second stall, opening in two weeks’ time, will be selling Indian rojak, the stallholders said.
But it will not be operating under Mr Allaudin’sname. “No, not me. It’s under my wife’s name,” he told The New Paper in Malay at the new stall yesterday morning.
His wife, Madam Hajara Aludeen, had testified at the recent coroner’s inquest in the food poisoning incident that she was not involved in preparing food at her husband’s stall.
Mr Allaudin was also seen giving instructions to a contractor at the stall, which is bare except for a sink.
Asked what he would be selling at the stall, Mr Allaudin was tight-lipped. All he would say was: “Just wait andsee.”
He refused to say more, but had a parting shot when The New Paper photographer took photos of him.
“Don’t disturb me. Stop destroying my life,”
Mr Allaudin said in English as he turned and walked away.
Moments later, the elderly man was seen speedily weaving his way through the market before we lost sight of him.
Open secret
Mr Allaudin may have chosen to stay silent about his future plans, but to stallholders at the market,news of hisnewstall is an open secret.
Mr Habib Mohd, 24, who works at his uncle’s cooked food stall, said Mr Allaudin had sat down for a chat with him and a few other stallholders yesterdaymorning while he was at the market.
“He said he’s opening a stall under his wife’s name and they’ll be selling Indian rojak,” Mr Habib said.
He added that Mr Allaudin would not be handling food at the new stall as he was not allowed to do so without a licence.
Stallholders near the new stall said they had seen only Mr Allaudin and his sons there.
They could not remember seeing his wife there.
A 53-year-old drinks stallholder who declined to be named said one of Mr Allaudin’s two sons was there on Thursday night and spoke to her.
“He said they won the tender but it’s under his mother’s name,” she said.
Heal so told her that the bid theymade was about $3,000 per month, $1,000 less than what the previous stallholder, who also sold Indian rojak, paid.
Despite a steady stream of customers, that stallholder called it quits about two months ago as he found the rent too high, she said.
A mutton soup seller, Mr Mohamed Khalid, 48, said he met Mr Allaudin at the stall on Thursday night, and the latter told him he was there to check the gas and electrical sockets.
Mr Allaudin and his sons were also busy getting display cases and other fittings ready for installation in the stall, he said.
