Phoolan Devi shot dead

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 25. The Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament and former ``bandit queen'', Ms. Phoolan Devi, was shot dead by three car-borne assailants outside her 44 Ashoka Road residence, a stone's throw from Parliament House, here this afternoon.

It all happened in a flash around 1-30 p.m. when the 44-year-old MP from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh had just returned after attending the morning session of Parliament. She was walking towards the main gate when three masked men carrying two revolvers and a Webley Scott pistol pumped nine bullets into her, killing her on the spot.

Ms. Phoolan Devi, who shot to prominence after the infamous Behmai massacre of 1981 in which 20 Thakur men were gunned down, sustained at least nine bullet wounds on the head, chest, shoulder and right arm. Her personal security guard, Balinder Singh, was hit in the right chest and right arm. Ms. Phoolan Devi collapsed near the gate.

Though grievously injured, Balinder Singh - who was not carrying his carbine - returned the fire from his 9-mm service pistol. Following the shooting, the three assailants fled in a green Maruti 800 (CIM 907), kept revving nearby an accomplice.

They abandoned the car barely 500 metres away on Pandit Pant Marg before boarding a waiting three-wheeler autorickshaw (DL-1R-235). Later, police recovered two revolvers, one Webley Scot pistol and a country-made weapon of .32-bore along with nine empty and 15 live rounds from the abandoned car.

Ms. Phoolan Devi, whose exploits were immortalised during her lifetime in the much talked about film ``Bandit Queen'' by the noted director Mr. Shekhar Kapur, was rushed to Lohia Hospital by people at her residence, who included her sister-in-law, Ms. Uma Kashyap. At the hospital, the doctors declared the MP ``brought dead''. Her bodyguard was admitted to the hospital in a serious condition.

Soon after the shoot-out there was a big rush of politicians to Ms Phoolan Devi's residence as also Lohia Hospital. Her husband, Mr. Umed Singh, was among her various relatives and friends who rushed to the hospital.

The body was kept in the hospital mortuary for ``cooling'' over four hours, during which time several political leaders paid their respects to the dynamic political leader who was twice elected to Parliament. From the mortuary, the body was shifted to Lady Hardinge Medical College later in the evening for post- mortem.

(According to a UNI report, the body of the slain MP will be cremated tomorrow at Chaube Ghat on the banks of the Ganga in Mirzapur, her constituency. Meanwhile, in Lucknow, the SP has called for a State-wide bandh tomorrow in protest against the killing even as irate party workers staged a dharna before Raj Bhavan.)

Security lapse?

Coming as it did while Parliament was in session, the daring attack - in a high-security zone near the Election Commission - was described by many as a major security lapse, especially since Ms. Phoolan Devi's security had been scaled down despite her insistence that she was under threat.

Ms. Phoolan Devi, who surrendered to the authorities in 1983 after a decade-long reign as ``Bandit Queen'' in the Chambal ravines, spent 11 years in Gwalior Central Jail in Madhya Pradesh. She was released without any trial in 1994 after which she joined the Samajwadi Party and was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996.

The Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi Range), Mr. Suresh Roy, said a ``red alert'' was immediately sounded and a hunt launched for the culprits. Experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory had been summoned to help in the investigation.

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