Forty-three years after the Behmai massacre, where ‘bandit queen’ Phoolan Devi and her gang killed 20 individuals, primarily from the Thakur community, as retribution for her rape, a court in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, handed a life sentence to one of the surviving accused.
This marks the first conviction in the case involving 35 accused, including Phoolan Devi, who gained notoriety post the incident and later surrendered, subsequently becoming an MP. However, she was shot dead on July 25, 2001, at the age of 37.
Judge Amit Malviya found Shyam Babu guilty, while Vishwanath was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, stated Kanpur Dehat district government advocate Raju Porwal, noting that all other accused have since passed away.
The massacre occurred on February 14, 1981, in Behmai village, where Phoolan Devi and her gang allegedly targeted individuals from the Thakur community in retaliation for her rape by Sri Ram Singh and his brother, Lalla Ram Singh, who were also from the same community. Seventeen of the victims were Thakurs.
The incident led to nationwide outrage and prompted the resignation of then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister V P Singh. Phoolan Devi surrendered in Madhya Pradesh two years later under an amnesty scheme. She remained incarcerated until 1994 and went on to win two Lok Sabha elections in 1996 and 1999. Phoolan Devi earned the moniker ‘Bandit Queen’ after the release of a movie based on the book “India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi” by author Mala Sen, directed by noted filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor. Despite the withdrawal of cases by then UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government in “public interest,” the Kanpur court annulled the decision, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court.
The Supreme Court also rejected her plea for dismissal of all cases against her in December 1996. Tragically, on July 25, 2001, while serving as a Samajwadi Party member from Mirzapur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Phoolan Devi was fatally shot by three masked gunmen outside her residence in Delhi’s Ashoka Road. Following court verdict, convict Shyam Babu was transferred to Kanpur Dehat jail.
