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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
The Phoolan Devi murder case took another turn on Wednesday when the Director General of Uttaranchal Police A K Saran told the Delhi Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma that on the day of the murder, another person by the name of Sher Singh Rana was in the Hardwar jail.
The Delhi police has already sent a team to trace the other Sher Singh Rana, who was released on bail on July 26, a day after Phoolan was gunned down at her residence in New Delhi.
Talking to rediff.com Saran said the timely detection of another Sher Singh Rana will help in cracking the bigger conspiracy behind Phoolan's murder.
"Now it looks that this is not a simple case of murder, but it has a larger conspiracy behind it. I have ordered a CID inquiry to find out who is the second Sher Singh Rana. The one who actually killed Phoolan Devi is under the custody of Delhi police. The second man got his bail cancelled on July 18 and was lodged in Hardwar jail from July 18-July 26 when he was bailed out once again," Saran told rediff.com.
He said that he did not rule out the possibility of the involvement of some legal brains behind the murders.
"We were lucky that we got the information on Tuesday night that another Sher Singh Rana was in jail on the day of the murder. This could have been used as a cover up by the real culprit at the trial stage and he could have said that he was in jail at the time of the murder. We are now determined to go to the bottom of this matter and find out the brains behind the murder of Phoolan Devi," he said.
Asked what is the real name of Sher Singh Rana alias Pankaj, Saran said that Rana was introduced to Uma Kashyap as Pankaj and it was she who gave the name Pankaj to the Delhi police. "He has a partner by the name of Pankaj Kalra in liquor business. Maybe he was using his name to hide his identity," Saran explained.
Meanwhile in Delhi the fight between Phoolan's sisters, Munni and Rukhmani, and her husband, Umed Singh has intensified.
While the sisters accuse Umed Singh for his alleged involvement in the assassination of their sister, Umed on his part alleged that the two sisters were carrying on campaign against him because they want a share in the property of Phoolan Devi, whose estimated value is around Rs 1 billion.
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