Sher Singh Rana, accused of assassinating Phoolan Devi, the bandit-turned-parliamentarian, has been arrested here nearly five years after her assassination in New Delhi.
KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Sher Singh Rana, accused of assassinating Phoolan Devi, the bandit-turned-parliamentarian, has been arrested here nearly five years after her assassination in New Delhi.
Police sources said Rana was arrested from a house in the Lake Gardens area of south Kolkata around 9 p.m. Monday by the Delhi Police team.
Soon after his arrest Rana was taken to New Delhi for interrogation. The special cell of Delhi Police had been on the trail of Rana ever since he escaped from the high-security Tihar Jail in 2004.
Rana had shot dead Devi outside her 44, Ashoka Road residence in Delhi on July 25, 2001. He was arrested by the Uttaranchal police a few days after the murder. Rana was helped by two more men in carrying out the murder.
"We have nothing to say on this. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) might know about it," Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS even as the CID top brass remained out of bounds to the media.
In New Delhi, Sanjeev Yadav, assistant commissioner of police (Special Cell), said: "We are bringing him (Rana) to Delhi and will produce him before the court."
Police said that Rana was in Tihar Jail but escaped when his aide dressed as a constable fooled the jail authorities into believing that he had come to take Rana to a court in Haridwar town for a trial.
Police said that it was the Behmai massacre by Phoolan Devi's dacoit gang that led to the revenge killing of the dacoit.
Phoolan Devi's gang shot dead 21 upper caste men in Behmai in Uttar Pradesh on February 14, 1981. The massacre carried out by Phoolan Devi was to avenge her gang rape at the hands of the upper caste village men.
Sources said the entire operation was conducted under secrecy and without the knowledge of Kolkata Police. Delhi Police had been on the lookout for Rana ever since his escape from jail.
Phoolan Devi, the bandit turned Samajwadi MP, was shot dead July 25, 2001, at her New Delhi residence. Rana had dramatically surrendered before the Uttaranchal Police in Dehradun on July 28, 2001, and had confessed before the media that he had murdered Phoolan Devi to avenge the Behmai massacre perpetrated by her.
The police had arrested Rana, his associates Shekhar Singh, Rajvir, Rajendra Singh, Dhan Prakash, Vijay Singh, Pradeep Singh, Surender, Praveen Mittal, Amit Rathi and Keshav Chandra in connection with the murder.
Bandit queen Phoolan Devi, who surrendered to the police in 1983 and was jailed until 1994, was elected to the Lok Sabha first in 1996 and then in 1999. Phoolan Devi and her husband Umed Singh lived in New Delhi and had no children.
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor had made a film on Phoolan Devi, "The Bandit Queen", capturing the life and times of the bandit who had allegedly been subjected to brutality since childhood by upper castes.
She hit the headlines in 1981 following the Behmai massacre.
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