Phoolan Devi Case: After 34 Years Accused Is Declared Juvenile

The 1981 Behmai Massacre involving Phoolan Devi has been forgotten by most. Now a district court has declared one of the accused as a juvenile at the time of the crime. 

-  Archana Mishra

The clock ticks on. It’s thirty Ramabai Nagar, Kanpur Dehat in Uttar Pradesh. The call, however, receives no response. Neither the defence advocate nor the prosecution counsel and not even ‘Kosha’, one of the alleged accused in the 1981 Behmai Massacre is anywhere to be seen.

After an hour, arrives Vishwanath, another accused in the case. Tall, dark complexioned, nattily clad in dark grey shirt and trouser with a green sweater on top of it, he is holding a stack of files of his lawyers. Anxiety is writ large on his face. Certainly, after the 23 November 2015 judgement of him being declared a ‘juvenile’ at the time of the crime, the alleged dacoit wants an early disposal of the case.

It’s been 34 years since late Phoolan Devi, also known as ‘woman Robin Hood’ along with her team of dacoits raided a Rajput dominated village, Behmai on 14 February 1981 and gunned down 22 men. The massacre, seen by some as an act of standing upto the caste hierarchies, made her the most worshipped dacoit of the era.

But before she surrendered in 1983, Uttar Pradesh Police made several arrests and encounters after the news of the massacre spread through the ravines into the political corridors. Among the 16 accused against whom chargesheet has been filed in the Kanpur court, is Vishwanath. The list includes Phoolan too but she never appeared in the court as her demand at the time of surrender was to remain in a Madhya Pradesh prison.

Phoolan was incarcerated for more than eleven years while her gang was moved to Kanpur court for trials. In one of her interviews she said, “The others went to Uttar Pradesh and stood trial, in defiance of my orders.”