<a href=http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_coverage.asp?gid=45> Phoolan Devi Shot D

Known as the "Bandit Queen", Phoolan Devistruck terror for over a decade before she entered politics in 1996, only tomeet a violent end five years later.

Phoolan Devi turned a new leaf in 1996 but not beforeshe spent 13 years in and out of various prisons after she shot to notoriety inthe wake of the 1981 Behmai massacre in which 20 Thakurs were shot dead.

She, however, contended that she was jailed under falsecharges and fake encounters.

Phoolan entered the Lok Sabha for the first time in1996 on a Samajwadi Party ticket defeating BJP's Virendra Singh, but lost the1998 elections to him. In 1999, she returned to the House defeating her oldrival and was a Member of the Committee on Labour and Welfare.

Her exploits fired the imagination of writers and filmdirectors across the globe, some of whom projected her as a "modern dayRobin Hood" and a crusader for the rights of poor, exploited, lower castewomen.

Her life came under international glare particularlyafter Shekhar Kapur's controversial film "Bandit Queen", a portrayalwith which she herself was not happy just as she did not like being referred toby the film's title.

Born in 1963 in Shekhpur Gudda of Jalaun District inUttar Pradesh, Phoolan married Umed Singh in 1994 to settle down as what sheherself described as "housewife, agriculturist and farmer".

Detained in various prisons on charges of dacoity, it was widely believed thatPhoolan took to the gun as a young girl to avenge past insults and oppressionthat she suffered at the hands of the upper castes.

In her journey from notoriety to fame, she came to beseen as a woman who fought back her tormentors.

She always said her special interests lay in bringingawareness among the poor, exploited, downtrodden, backward and minorities andthat her favourite pastime was social service. In 1995, she and her husbandembraced Buddhism, the religion which preaches non-violence.

Though Phoolan often targeted the upper castes andThakurs in vengeance of her past, there were also reports of raids by her onsome villages belonging to lower castes. In one incident she reportedly shotdead some Yadavs of a village in Jaluan district.

She was released from prison in 1994 after the thenChief Minister of UP Mulayam Singh dropped all cases against her, but in 1997,Phoolan faced arrest in 57 cases of alleged dacoity and murder, including theBehmai massacre. The Supreme Court rejected her plea for blanket anticipatorybail in all these cases.

She evaded court proceedings then either by failing tomake an appearance or going into hiding.

Married first at the age of 11 to Putti Lal, who was 20years her senior, she left her first husband and returned to him only to findthat he had married someone else.

She spent her days in the ravines on the run fromdacoit Vikram Mallah, first as an accomplice and then as a gang leader callingherself Phool Singh.

Having surrendered in 1983, she came out of GwaliorJail in 1994. But the shadows of her past continued to haunt her and she met aviolent death at the age of 38.