Phoolan Devi's 53rd birth anniversary: A brief timeline of the Bandit Queen

"Sing of my deeds, tell of my combats. How I fought the treacherous demons. Forgive my failings and bestow peace on me."

Famously known as the Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi was a former dacoit and politician. She became famous for her acts of revenge on those who had abused her in the past. She was born on August 10, 1963 and was assassinated on July 25, 2001.

On her 53rd birth anniversary today, here is a brief timeline to know more about the Bandit Queen:

• Phoolan Devi was born in a very poor family in Uttar Pradesh. Her family had only one acre of farmland

• Her first public protest was for a Neem tree, which was cut down and sold by her cousin. She did not relent even when the elders of the family tried to use force to send her back home

• She was only 11 years old when her family arranged her marriage with a 30 year-old man

• She returned to her home village after her husband took a second wife

• She was kidnapped from her house but she later joined the robbers who had kidnapped her as their team member. She was the only woman in the gang

• Dacoit Vikram Mallah taught Devi how to use a rifle, and she helped the gang loot villages where upper-caste people lived, kidnap people for ransom and rob trains

• She married Vikram Mallah and they both continued to rob villages and the people who belonged to high castes

• It has been said that after every crime, she used to visit a Durga temple and thank the Goddess for her protection

• After the Behmai killings, in which more than 20 Thakurs were assassinated by Phoolan Devi as a revenge, a large-scale manhunt was launched by the police to locate her

• It was then that the media gave her the name, 'Bandit Queen'

Image source: Newsflicks

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• Devi dodged capture for two years after the Behmai massacre

• Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government negotiated a surrender and in February 1983, she agreed to surrender to the authorities on her terms

• Her terms and conditions were that she would only surrender to the Madhya Pradesh Police because she did not trust the UP police; she wouldn't lay down her arms before the police but only before Mahatma Gandhi's picture and the Hindu goddess Durga; she also asked for a promise from the Indian government that the death penalty would not be imposed on any member of her gang who surrenders and that the term should not exceed eight years for the other members of the gang

• Her surrender was witnessed by around 10,000 people and 300 policemen, apart from the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh

• Devi was charged with 48 crimes

• Two years after her release, Phoolan Devi served as an MP during the term of the 11th Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998

• Renowned director Shekhar Kapur made a film on her life called Bandit Queen in 1994, which was based on late Mala Sen's 1993 book India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi

• On July 25, 2001, Devi was shot dead by three men outside her Delhi bungalow. The prime suspect Sher Singh Rana later surrendered to the police.

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