Phoolan Devi death anniversary: Lesser-known facts about the ‘Bandit Queen’

New Delhi: Today, July 25, is the 21st death anniversary of Phoolan Devi. Her journey as a dacoit started in 1979. In 1981, she allegedly killed 20 Thakurs of the Behmai village in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat area to avenge her rape by two other bandits — Lala Ram and Sri Ram (both upper caste Thakurs). The bandit-turned-politician was accused of 48 criminal offences, including murder, plunder, arson, and kidnapping for ransom, in 1983. Phoolan Devi, the Samajwadi Party lawmaker from Mirzapur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, was shot dead from close range by three masked gunmen in the national capital on July 25, 2001. Here in this article, we will tell you about the lesser-known facts about Phoolan Devi, who endured poverty, and child marriage, and had an abusive marriage before taking to a life of crime.

Early life

Phoolan Devi was born to Devi Din and Moola Devi in Purva (a village near Jalaun in Uttar Pradesh) on August 10, 1963. At the age of 11 years, she was married to a ruthless man in his thirties in exchange for a cow. She somehow managed to escape from her abusive husband after being raped by him for several years.

Phoolan Devi, at the age of 18, was gang raped by high caste outlaws after the gang she belonged to was assailed by rivals. While she was locked up in Behmai (an obscure Thakur town), a group of Thakur guys gang raped her for two weeks.

Imprisonment

In 1983, Phoolan Devi was accused of 48 criminal offences, including murder, plunder, arson, and kidnapping for ransom. She spent 11 years in Gwalior and Jabalpur jails and was released without facing trial in 1994 as she kept fighting a legal battle against the UP police and the Kanpur court’s orders.

Political career

Phoolan Devi successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket in 1996 (when the Mulayam Singh Yadav government filed an application seeking withdrawal of the case against her). Apart from this, she also won Lok Sabha elections in 1996 and 1999.

Death

Phoolan Devi was shot dead in Delhi by a Thakur youth, Sher Singh Rana, on July 25, 2001. He claimed that he had killed her to avenge the massacre of Thakurs in Behmai.

Film

A film based on Phoolan Devi was made. The movie Bandit Queen is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language biographical film, based on the life of Phoolan Devi, as covered in the book – India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi by the Indian author Mala Sen. It was written, produced and directed by Shekhar Kapur. It starred Seema Biswas as the main character.