Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402200045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: NEW DELHI LENGTH: Medium
From her hideout in the nearly inaccessible Chambal ravines of northern India, Phoolan, 37, was said to have sown terror with her seven-member gang throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the early 1980s.
Police claim Phoolan became the bandits' ringleader after she was gang raped in her village of low-caste Hindus. To seek revenge, police allege, she led the killing of 18 men of high caste, all of whom were believed to have been involved in the rape.
Phoolan has always denied involvement, but that massacre in February 1981 near the Uttar Pradesh town of Kanpur helped make her a hero among India's downtrodden, as did her adeptness at eluding police and the paramilitary reinforcements dispatched by the central government.
Wanted in 55 criminal cases in Uttar Pradesh on charges including murder, kidnapping and robbery, Phoolan gave herself up in February 1983, after negotiating the terms of her surrender. One condition was that she not be transferred to Uttar Pradesh, where she feared she would be assassinated.
Behind bars, Phoolan continued to be lionized by India's poorest, who saw in her the personification of resistance against the injustices of the caste system. Her life story was recounted in movies and books.
Phoolan was supposed to serve eight years in jail but ended up spending 11. The Supreme Court on Friday ordered her paroled, and the beaming round-faced woman, dressed in a sari, walked free from New Delhi's Tis Hazari court after posting a bond worth $1,620.
The waiting crowd roared its support.
Phoolan's break came when a coalition dominated by lower-caste Hindus was elected to power in Uttar Pradesh last November. In an apparent move to please the people who voted for him, the state's chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, announced Jan. 20 that his state would withdraw all charges against Phoolan.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that she should go free because she had spent more than a decade in prison without being tried on any charges.
After her release Saturday, she went to stay with an uncle in New Delhi, accompanied by a court-ordered police escort.
The abiding importance of caste in Indian politics - and the durability of Phoolan's image as a champion of the social underdog - sent several of India's parties racing to her jail cell as her release loomed.
"Leaders from various political parties are already pulling Phoolan in different directions," lawyer Kamani Jaiswal, who met with Phoolan last week, told the Pioneer newspaper. "I am convinced Phoolan would be persuaded to join some party or the other."
Phoolan made one cryptic remark that some observers took to mean that she is serious about trying her hand at politics. Asked where she will be residing, the accused highwaywoman said, "I will live in the entire country."
by CNB