The 1994 film Bandit Queen (made around the time of her release from jail) is loosely based on her life until that point.ĭevi was born into the Mallah (boatmen) caste, in the small village of Ghura Ka Purwa (also spelled Gorha ka Purwa) in Jalaun District, Uttar Pradesh. In 2001, she was shot dead at the gates of her official bungalow (allotted to her as MP) in New Delhi by Sher Singh Rana whose kinsmen had been slaughtered at Behmai by her gang. She then stood for election to parliament as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party and was twice elected to the Lok Sabha as the Member of Parliament for Mirzapur. In 1994, the state government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party summarily withdrew all charges against her and Devi was released. The respectful sobriquet 'Devi' was conferred upon her by the media and public at this point. Her act of revenge was portrayed by the press as an act of righteous rebellion. Phoolan spent the next eleven years in jail, as the various charges against her were tried in court. She was charged with 48 crimes, including multiple murders, plunder, arson and kidnapping for ransom. As many as twenty-two men belonging to that village were shot dead by Devi's gang.ĭevi evaded capture for two years after the massacre before she and her few surviving gang members surrendered to the police in 1983. A few months later, her new gang descended upon the village of Behmai to exact revenge for what she had suffered.
After escaping, Devi rejoined the remnants of her Mallah's faction who were gangs of Mallaah, took another lover from among those men, and continued with banditry. The victorious rival faction took Devi to their village of Behmai, confined her in a room, and took turns to rape her repeatedly over several weeks. Devi's lover, Vikram Mallah, was killed in that gunfight. She was the only woman in that gang, and her relationship with one gang member, coupled with caste difference, caused a gunfight between gang members. Having developed major differences with her parents and being raped multiple times by her husband, the teenage Devi sought escape by running away and joining a gang of bandits. Phoolan Devi (10 August 1963 – 25 July 2001), popularly known as "Bandit Queen", was an Indian female rights activist, bandit and politician from the Samajwadi Party who later served as Member of Parliament.īorn into a poor family in rural Uttar Pradesh, Devi endured poverty, child marriage and had an abusive marriage before taking to a life of crime.
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