The much-awaited verdict in the sensational murder of ‘Bandit Queen’-turned-politician Phoolan Devi is likely to be announced by Bharat Parashar, the Additional Sessions Judge of Patiala House courts, on Friday.
It has taken 13 long years for the prosecution to conclude the trial in the murder of Phoolan Devi that had rocked Parliament as she was killed at the gate of her official residence at 44, Ashoka Road, in the highly secured New Delhi district. She was murdered around 1.30 pm on July 25, 2001.
Phoolan had taken a lift from Raghuraj Singh Shakya, a Samajwadi Party MP, to reach her official residence from Parliament House. She had barely entered the gates when she was confronted by Sher Singh Rana and Dhan Prakash alias Vicky. Rana allegedly pumped six bullets into her while Vicky fired at her Personal Security Officer (PSO) Constable Balinder Singh.
Fortunately, the PSO survived the murderous assault and lived to tell the tale before the court. His testimony against Rana and his partner in crime helped the prosecution as he identified the killers. Kalicharan the personal secretary of Phoolan too had deposed against Rana before the trial court.
Investigations had then revealed that Rana, along with 11 others, allegedly conspired and killed Phoolan to avenge the 1981 Behmai massacre.
It was said that Rana had witnessed the massacre as a child in which 17 people of the Thakur community had been lined up and killed by Phoolan and her gang, reportedly to avenge the gang-rape Phoolan had suffered at the hands of the Thakurs of the village.
Out of the 12 accused chargesheeted for Phoolan’s murder by the Crime Branch, Keshav Chauhan, Amit Rathi and Praveen Mittal were granted bail after spending nine years in jail.
One of the accused, Pradeep died during the trial. They were all charged with conspiracy under Section 120-B of the IPC. Rana too tried to seek bail but the same was turned down by the trial judge, saying enough evidence had come on record against him.
It was alleged that Rana and some others had deliberately kept alive a criminal case at Haridwar to create an alibi that they were not in Delhi on the day when Phoolan was assassinated. He had in fact got his servant arrested in a case against his name. Police was astonished to find that Rana’s servant had impersonated him and the man was sent into judicial custody in Haridwar jail.
Rana’s bluff was called by the investigators who proved before the court that Rana had hatched a plot to create an alibi as he had thought that he could escape from the scene of the crime.
Investigating Officer of the case Suresh Kaushik deposed before the court for 27 months during the trial and the cross-examination by the defence. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police that carried out the investigations fielded 172 witnesses and five court witnesses to bolster its case against the main accused Rana and his accomplices.
Investigations suffered a major setback when Rana managed to flee from Tihar Jail on February 17, 2004.
KK Paul, the then Delhi Police Commissioner constituted a special police team to track Rana and bring him to justice. His escape was assisted by notorious gangster Subhash Thakur from Varanasi Jail. He was provided monetary help by Thakur and he managed to hoodwink the police for almost two years before Delhi Police Special Cell caught up with him.
He was finally nabbed on June 2, 2006 by the Special Cell team in Kolkata and was brought to Delhi.
Police had recovered a passport bearing Rana’s photograph that was issued in the name of Sanjay Gupta and a satellite phone he had bought in Dhaka. During interrogation Rana revealed that he managed to escape from Tihar Jail with the help of his friend Sandeep, who impersonated an Uttar Pradesh policeman and took Rana’s custody from jail authorities on the pretext of taking him to a Haridwar court in connection with a case.
Once free, Rana managed to escape to Bangladesh and rented a house at Khulna and lived there posing as Sanjay. After staying there for a while, he went to Dubai and then to Kabul in Afghanistan. He claimed his motive in visiting Afghanistan was to locate the grave of the Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan and bring his mortal remains back to India. He claimed that he went to Kandahar, Herat and then to Gazni at a time when the Taliban were ruling Afghanistan.