NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Lawyers for and against Phoolan Devi in the infamous Behmai massacre case ruled out any connection between the 20-year-old incident and Wednesday's murder in New Delhi of the Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament.
Phoolan Devi had earned notoriety as 'Bandit Queen' after the cold-blooded murder of 21 Thakur men in Behmai village of Uttar Pradesh on February 14, 1981.
But her legal counsel Nandlal Jaiswal claimed that she had no enemies. "I am shocked to hear that Phoolan has been killed; I cannot imagine who could have committed the crime, since her truly sworn foes are dead and gone," Jaiswal told rediff.com
V N Sengar, counsel for the families of the Behmai victims, also expressed shock. "I am sure this has nothing to do with the Behmai massacre, because I do not know of anyone among my clients who could even remotely think of taking the extreme step of eliminating her," he said.
"I condemn the murder," Sengar added, "because I believed in getting her punished by law; and I was quite confident of getting justice for the families of the 21 victims who had suffered all these years."
Jaiswal said the last of her rivals, dacoit Lala Ram, was gunned down in a police encounter last year, so there was none who could have wanted to kill her. Lala Ram's brother Sri Ram was killed years ago in gang warfare.
Lala Ram and Sri Ram, members of the upper-caste Thakur community, were allegedly responsible for Phoolan Devi's gang rape that provoked the retaliatory massacre of 21 Thakurs in Behmai.
In a swift reprisal, the brothers' gang gunned down 13 members of the lower-caste Mallah (boatman) community barely two months later. An angry Phoolan Devi hit back and killed Sri Ram in a fierce battle some months later, before she decided to lay down arms before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh on April 16, 1983.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government has refuted Samajwadi Party vice-president Amar Singh's charge that the withdrawal of Phoolan Devi's security at Chief Minister Rajnath Singh's behest was responsible for her murder.
"We never withdrew any security given to Phoolan Devi, who was provided with a gunner," Singh told rediff.com. "Phoolan Devi never sought any additional security; so neither was any additional security provided to her nor did the question of withdrawal arise."
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
