JOIN USOver 31 years after the “bandit queen turned politician” Phoolan Devi and her gang massacred 20 people of a particular caste at Behmai village in the then Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh, the first testimony was recorded at the district court.
Rajaram, an eye witness to the killings, testified at the court of the special judge (anti-dacoity) Mehmoond Ahmed Khan in Rambai Nagar district on Monday.
“Man Singh had fired the first shot on the orders of Phoolan Devi...thereafter the dacoits ordered 25 residents of the village, all from the thakur community, to stand in a line and sprayed them with bullets killing 20 of them on the spot,” Rajaram said in his testimony in the packed court room.
He said that on February 14, 1981, Phoolan Devi, Man Singh and around 32 other robbers, armed with rifles and guns, entered the village and enquired the residents on the whereabouts of `Lalaram and Shriram' (rival gang leaders who had allegedly tortured Phoolan earlier)...
when the villagers said they had no idea of them, the gang became suspicious that they helped the duo’s escape, the witness said.
He said the robbers took 25 people towards the bank of the Yamuna river and fired at them from close range.
While 20 people were killed, five others received serious injuries.
“I had seen the entire incident from behind the pillars of a dilapidated house'', Rajaram went on to say.
Charges had been framed against four accused in the Behmai massacre last month. There were 35 accused in the case including Phoolan Devi.
Phoolan, who went on to become a Lok Sabha member later, was gunned down by three assailants outside her MP quarter in Delhi on July 25, 2001.
Twenty-seven other accused also died during the period and only seven are alive now. Three of them had been absconding and non-bailable warrants had been issued against them.
The court would be holding daily hearing of the matter.