It was a murder for revenge, Delhi district court recently held this view while sentencing the main accused Sher Singh Rana in Phoolan Devi assassination case.
She was the first bandit queen of the country who was raped and beaten for three weeks in 1981 reportedly by Ram Singh and Lala Ram of Thakur community and was later killed by a Thakur trio outside her official residence at busy Ashok Road in highly guarded VIP area near Parliament in July 2001.
Delhi’s Patiala house court on 14 August, 2014 sentenced Sher Singh Rana for life imprisonment for the assassination of Phoolan Devi. Though the Court sentenced the convict, it put a question on the police investigation. The Court said the prosecution was not successful in establishing who was the culprit who killed Phoolan Devi.
It was morning of 25 July, 2001 Member of Parliament from Mirzapur of Uttar Pradesh was to leave for Parliament. She went to Parliament and came back after work. Sher Singh Rana had come to her residence along with Uma Kashyap and her husband Vijay Kashyap from Roorki in his green Maruti car. It was the same car which was allegedly used by assailants after shooting Phoolan Devi.
The police had charge-sheeted 12 people including Sher Singh Rana along with his two brothers and other associates. The charge-sheet had been filed under Sections of murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy of IPC and Arms Act. The Court acquitted all accused for all charges except Sher Singh Rana who was held guilty for the offence of murder and attempt to murder.
The Court raised an important question: who were the other associates of the accused Sher Singh Rana who either fired at Phoolan Devi and constable Balender or drove away Car No. CIM 907 facilitating the escape of the two assailants from the spot.
The Court held Rana guilty of the murder on the basis of his conduct and on the fact that he was at her residence since morning on the day of incident and his car was used to flee from the spot after pumping five bullets in her.
The Court said that prosecution has been able to prove that the accused Sher Singh who was present at the house of Phoolan Devi since morning on 25 July, 2001 and was found absent right from the time of incident and that assailants used his car in fleeing away from the spot.
While acquitting 10 other accused in the matter and convicting Rana, the Court said it was a murder for revenge. The accused wanted to take revenge of killing of 22 people of Thakur community in Behamai near Kanpur on 14 February, 1983.
As regards the motive of killing of Phoolan Devi, it came to the knowledge of the police that Sher Singh Rana belonged to Thakur community and was very ambitious from his college days. The Thakur community was against Phoolan Devi as she had killed 22 Thakurs in the ill-famous Behmai Killing.
Accused Sher Singh Rana thus wanted to avenge the said massacre and in the process wanted to become a self-proclaimed leader of Thakur community and also earn fame and money by short cut methods.
It also came to the knowledge of the police that the conspiracy which was primarily in the mind of Sher Singh was being hatched by him over a long period of time and in order to arrange finance for it he along with other associates looted Rs 25 lakhs by committing two robberies in the year in 2000 and 2001.
It was also found that from the said looted amount Sher Singh Rana got a country liquor vend allotted in the name of his friend Pankaj Kalra so that more money could be generated in order to execute the murder of Phoolan Devi.
After two days of assassination Sher Singh Rana was arrested by the Uttarakhand police and later by the Delhi police in July 2001. He somehow managed to break famous and high security Tihar jail in 2004 and fled to Afghanistan to bring the ashes of Prithvi Raj Chauhan. He could be arrested after two years in 2006.