Killed 20 people for avenging gang-rape; verdict announced after 43 years

To get revenge for rape, Phoolan Devi and her companions killed 20 people during the 1980s. 43 years after that murder, a court in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India announced the sentence.

Two of the accused in the incident are currently alive. A court in Kanpur sentenced one of them to life imprisonment. Besides, the judge acquitted the others for lack of evidence.

A court in Uttar Pradesh‍‍‍‍`s Kanpur district announced the verdict on Wednesday (February 14).

The murder was committed in February 1981 in the Uttar Pradesh village of Behmai. Men from the Tagore community‍‍`s higher castes gang-raped Phoolan Devi. In the village of Behmai, Phoolan Devi and her accomplices killed 20 Thakur men in a row as payback.

That incident caused quite an uproar throughout India. Under pressure, VP Singh, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time, was forced to step down. A total of 34 persons were charged with the murder. However, 32 accused died during the trial.

Among the two surviving accused, one is named Shyambabu Kewat and the other is Vishwanath. The first person was sentenced to life imprisonment by the additional district judge of Kanpur Dehat Amit Malvya and the second person was acquitted. 28 witnesses died during the case trial. In 2012, the charge was formed in Kanpur court. 

Phoolan later surrendered in Madhya Pradesh two years after the murder under an amnesty scheme. She was imprisoned till 1994. Charges against Phoolan Devi were withdrawn that year on the orders of then Samajwadi Party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

After her release from prison in 1994, she joined the Samajwadi Party and contested the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. Despite having no educational qualifications and involvement in politics, she was elected Member of Parliament from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. Phoolan Devi was very popular in her state and central politics.

On July 25, 2001, she was shot dead outside the official residence in New Delhi. She was killed to avenge the Behmai murder.