Kanpur, 15th Feb. Forty-three years after the infamous Behmai massacre, a court on Wednesday handed down a life sentence to one of the two surviving accused in the case. The Behmai massacre, perpetrated by bandit Phoolan Devi and her gang, resulted in the brutal killings of 20 individuals, predominantly from the Thakur community, as an act of retribution for her rape.
Judge Amit Malviya, presiding over the proceedings, found Shyam Babu guilty, while acquitting Vishwanath due to insufficient evidence, as confirmed by Kanpur Dehat district government advocate Raju Porwal. This marks the first conviction in the case, which involved a total of 35 accused, including Phoolan Devi, who achieved notoriety following the incident and later served as a Member of Parliament before her assassination on July 25, 2001, at the age of 37.
The tragic events unfolded on February 14, 1981, when Phoolan Devi and her accomplices carried out the massacre in Behmai village, located in Dehat, ostensibly to avenge her rape by individuals from the Thakur community. The incident, which claimed the lives of 20 individuals, predominantly Thakurs, triggered widespread outrage across the nation and led to the resignation of then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister V P Singh.
Phoolan Devi subsequently surrendered in Madhya Pradesh under an amnesty scheme two years after the massacre. She remained incarcerated until 1994 and later ventured into politics, winning two Lok Sabha elections in 1996 and 1999.
Phoolan Devi’s life story, including the Behmai massacre, gained further notoriety with the release of the film “Bandit Queen,” directed by Shekhar Kapoor and based on Mala Sen’s book “India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi.”
Despite efforts to dismiss the charges against her, Phoolan Devi faced legal challenges, with the Supreme Court ultimately rejecting her plea for the dismissal of all cases in December 1996.
Following the court’s verdict on Wednesday, convict Shyam Babu was escorted to Kanpur Dehat jail to serve his sentence, marking a long-awaited development in the protracted legal saga surrounding the Behmai massacre.
