INDIA’S BANDIT QUEEN

  • 11 Jan - 17 Jan, 2025
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Fiction

Eighteen–year–old Lal Singh’s teenaged widow had not even seen her husband’s face because her gauna had yet to take place. They were married in June and she was to go to his house after the harvesting season. The young thakur was gunned down by the gang on the banks of the Yamuna. In another house, a widow mourned for her husband, Tuli Ram, and two young sons. An invalid, Sohan Singh, cried and asked why Phoolan Devi had spared his life. “Killing a disabled man is no chivalry,” remarked the bandit queen pushing him with the butt of her gun, according to an eye witness. But Sohan’s brother, Banwari Singh, was taken away by her and shot.

NO MERCY
One villager, Ram Adhar Singh, who feel at the feet of Phoolan Devi and begged for mercy, was carried to the ravines along with others and repeatedly shot.

Even 72 hours after the murders, the soil near the ravines overlooking the Yamuna was soaked in blood. The police covered the area with thorny babool bushes.

Phoolan Devi ordered her hostages to sit down with their backs to a mud wall. Then she directed her men to fire. Within minutes, 20 were dead. Four others with bullet injuries were given up for dead. They are the only witnesses to the crime.

The lack of follow–up action by the police for the next 24 hours has resulted in widespread demonstrations in Oraiyya town nearby. The college students of Oraiyya went on a lightning strike and paralysed traffic on the highway. They demanded that the army replace the state police in searching for the dacoits.

“For five years the police have been searching for these dacoits and for the last 72 hours also they are searching for them,” remarked a student. The markets were closed in protest yesterday. Even the census staff is scared of visiting the interior villages.

The Inspector General of Police, Mr Mahendra Singh, who visited the area yesterday evening, told this correspondent that additional forces had been posted. “I am also investigating the complaint of some villagers that the P A C jawans refused to stop playing volleyball and accompany those who had gone on a cycle to seek help.”

Phoolan Devi responded in different ways, depending on her feelings towards the interviewer. The Illustrated Weekly of India, part of the Times of India consortium, published an extract from a 1984 book (Devi, by Richard Shears and Isobelle Gidly) which records her reactions at the time:

Q: Why did you take your gang to Behmai?
A:
What should I say? What can I say? We all had to take revenge for what Lala Ram and Sri Ram had done. For many days after they killed Vikram they did mazak [made mockery] with me.

Q: What do you think about the Thakurs of Behmai?
A:
They’re dogs. Dirty dogs. I won’t say more.

In the Indian Express, rival English–language newspaper to the Times of India, Chand Joshi reported (in his article “Phoolan now only a Jangle of Bangles”, 6 March 1983) that when asked about her involvement in Behmai Phoolan replied:

“I was not there at the spot on that day and God is my witness. I would not attack a village where my so–called enemies were not even present. I have killed with my own hands only one man in my life, but I will not give you the name. I was on the other side of the village when the massacre took place.”

Another journalist following the story for the Indian Express had been their correspondent in Madhya Pradesh for some years and knew the terrain well. Referring to the period after Vikram Mallah’s death, he asked Phoolan Devi:

Q: What happened to you?
A:
I was taken to Simra. It is in the Jalaun district of U P.

Q: You were taken to Behmai or Simra?
A:
I was not taken to Behmai, I was not there.

Q: Who was responsible for Behmai then?
A:
(Pause) Four other gangs were there Ram Avtar, Raghunath and Rampal.”

Sunday, a popular monthly magazine, of which M. J. Akbar was editor at the time, ran a cover story in their issue dated 15 March 1981. The article was headed, “Phoolan Devi: Queen of Dacoits” and the blurb that highlighted the article read:

She wears jeans. She carries a sten gun, which she can use with great accuracy and without any mercy. She belongs to a backward caste, and she hates the upper–caste thakurs because they have oppressed her and her community. She has been abducted and raped repeatedly by two thakur gang leaders who killed her lover to get her. She became a dacoit after she was spurned by her husband and spat upon by society. Today, she is the most powerful, the most dacoit in Uttar Pradesh. And she will have her revenge on both the thakurs and society.

On 14 February she led her gang of backward–caste dacoits to the thakur village of Behmai in U P and shot dead all those who had abetted in her capture and rape. And laughing with the pride of a woman who has just taken revenge, taunted the police to capture her, she left. The U P police have mounted a massive hunt for her, but the only casualty, till the moment of writing, has been the chief of U P police, Mahendra Singh, who has had to be removed because of his failure to get Phoolan Devi. Shubhabrata Battacharya went into the desolate ravines between the Ganga and the Jamuna, where Phoolan Devi operates, to find out the fascinating story.

In his article, Shubhabrata Battacharya writes:

14 February 1981: The villagers of Behmai see Phoolan after a lapse of five months. But it is no longer the helpless Phoolan they had seen in August. This time Phoolan is wearing a police uniform and along with her are twenty armed men, belonging to the gangs of Ram Avtar Mallah, Balwan Gadaria, Man Singh Yadav, Raghunath Mallah and the supreme leader of all these gangs, “baba” Mustaqeem (though Mustaqeem himself was not present).

Later in the article he says:

According to the description available with the police, Phoolan has a wheatish complexion, a round face with pimple marks, is of medium height and strong build, has masculine hands and feet and “average” eyes, nose and ears. Such a description does not get anyone very far. When the Kanpur daily, Aaj [a Hindi newspaper], published a photograph of Phoolan’s younger sister, Ramkali, the police constable at Kalpi who had seen Phoolan, said that Ramkali bore a strong resemblance to her dacoit sister.

The police constable at Kalpi had been wrong. Phoolan Devi looked nothing like Ramkali, who was considered to be the “beauty” of the family. Phoolan looked much more like Rukhmini and Moola, neither of whom wanted anything to do with the police or press. Ramkali, the one Phoolan was least close to in the family, was hounded by photographers and posed for a small fee, allowing them to come to their own conclusions. As a result, the photofit picture of Phoolan Devi which was put together by the police bore no resemblance to her and caused further confusion.

When questioned, Ramkali said in defence of her sister, “Aaj hamahun laike chalau, khawao, piwao, goli chalibo sikhabau, hamahun khooni ban jaihen.” (Today you take me along, give me good food and drink, teach me how to use a gun, I too will become a murderer.) It is difficult to know what she meant. Perhaps her own life was so miserable that she would have done the same as Phoolan, given the opportunity; perhaps she was saying that for food, water and the power of the gun, her sister had turned bloodthirsty. No one was sure but they loved it. It was just the sort of thing they wanted to hear about the “reincarnation of Kali”. Whatever she meant, Moola and Rukhmini were furious and refused to speak to Ramkali for some years. Perhaps they were unfair to her, misunderstanding her remarks as any reader of the magazine might have done. Later, in March 1981, Ramkali told a reporter from India Today, the fortnightly news magazine with a vast circulation throughout the country: “God never makes dacoits or saints. It is only men who make other people into dacoits and saints.”

In the same magazine particularly the whole issue was devoted to this story there is an insert headed” A boon to Youth Congress (I)” which is revealing of the politics of the time and reads:

The Behmai incident has been a godsend for the Youth Congress (I) unit in UP, led by Sanjay Singh, MLA, to snipe at the government. Sanjay Singh who is the son–in–law of the brother of Chief Minister, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, has been ignored by the state leadership for some time after the death of Sanjay Gandhi. Being the son of the raja of Amethi, the constituency of Sanjay Gandhi, Sanjay Singh had enjoyed to patronage during Sanjay Gandhi’s life–time. He, therefore, lost no time in attacking the state government after the Behmai massacre and demanding the sacking of the Inspector General of Police, Mahendra Singh. A day later, Mahendra Singh was removed from the post of I G P.

That was not all. On 25 February, when the Chief Minister went to Bhogipur to condole the death of Police Inspector Moolchand who had died in an encounter, Sanjay Singh was visiting Behmai along with Kanpur M L A, Bhoodar Mishra, and Youth Congress (I) leader, Jagadambika pal. He had visited Bhognipur hours before the C M’s arrival and held a meeting with the new Inspector General of Police, N. K. Verma, at the Bhognipur Inspection Bungalow.

At Behmai, Sanjay Singh offered to pay for five guns to be given to those whom the police approved. This was a thoughtful gesture. For, in Behmai, the thakurs are not so poor as to accept the dhotis and blankets which were being offered by government. What they need is guns, and body prepared to give them this wins their hearts.”

Jon Bradshaw recorded another “eye-witness” report:

“She was cruel,” said Muhti. “She was passionate. She was filled with a terrible rage, like a deep thirst that cannot be slaked. I remember going to her camp on the other side of the Chambal River to sell her guns and ammunition. She wasn’t there. She was out on a robbery. I had never seen her before, and when she returned my heart went to my head. I was dizzy with desire.

“She was nearly six feet tall, believe me, at least, and her hair was the colour of dried blood. I swear to you, on the head of my son, a night with that woman would be like drinking the most delectable deadly poison.”

Further in the article he adds:

“Muhti,” I said, “in cases of this kind, I have a standard policy. One thousand rupees for the truth, 200 rupees for lies, and 500 for exaggerations.”

I gave him the money and Muhti smiled. “Thank you, sahib, he said. “The 500 rupees will help to put my mythical son through school.”

Richard Shears and Isobelle Gidly describe the Behmai Massacre in their book Devi, and come up with an interesting detail. They spoke to the two survivors of the incident, both of whom had been wounded and presumed to be dead. They had been saved only because the bodies, of other dead men fell on top of them when the shooting started, shielding them from further bullets. Both Krishna Swarup and Dev Prayag Singh told these two reporters that, at the river, they had not seen Phoolan Devi. Ram Avtar, they said, seemed to be in control of the situation and gave the orders. “Kill the fuckers!” he had shouted. Krishna Swarup had felt a pain in his shoulder and lost conciousness. Dev Prayag Singh was hit several times in the leg and also in the chest but remained aware of what surrounded him. He recalled Ram Avtar shouting into the air, after firing another shot into the tangle of bodies, “Here is your revenge, Phoolan Devi!”

In a letter she sent to me from prison, Phoolan Devi said: “It is difficult to speak about the events that took place in Behmai because my lettes to you pass through too many hands. Also what I am writing for you [the diary] is read by many and written by people I do not know so well. What can I say? You know how it is: if a woman does something, men feel they have to prove themselves to be superior and therefore go further. It is true that I wanted to avenge Vikram’s death. Many people supported this feeling in me, over many months, and I cannot begin to point fingers at them now. All I can tell you is that I wanted to kill Sri Ram and Lala Ram but they were not among the dead, as you know. I do not believe in killing people without a positive reason but the situation got out of control and, in the eyes of Durga Mata, I am innocent of these deaths.”

to be continued...

RELATED POST

COMMENTS