Phoolan Devi (Hindi: फूलन देवी, Phūlan Dēvi) (10 August 1963 – 25 July 2001), popularly known as "Bandit Queen", was an Indian bandit and later a Member of Parliament. Born to a low caste family in rural Uttar Pradesh, Phoolan grew up in poverty, was subjected to child abuse by her older husband, and upon becoming a social pariah, took to a life of crime.
While still a teenager, Phoolan was kidnapped by a gang of bandits, as the village headman had asked them to kill a troublemaker. The gang members were shocked to see a little girl and refused to kill her. She had nowhere to go so she began living in the forest as one of the gang members. The leader of the gang and Phoolan fell in love and got married. Her relationship with one gang member became a source of rancour, culminating in Phoolan's lover being shot in gunfight. Phoolan was then gang-raped by the rival faction. After her recovery she rallied gang members that she trusted and returned to Behmai, the village where she had been raped, to seek revenge.[2] Twenty-two Rajput men were lined up and shot dead.
The press portrayed the Behmai massacre as an act of righteous lower-caste rebellion and Phoolan herself as an oppressed feminist Robin Hood. The respectful sobriquet 'Devi' was conferred upon her by the media at this point. Phoolan evaded capture for two years after the massacre before she and her few surviving gang-members surrendered in 1983. She was charged with forty-eight crimes, including multiple murders, plunder, arson and kidnapping for ransom.[3] After eleven years pending trial, the state government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party withdrew all charges against her, and Phoolan was released in 1994.[3] She then stood for election to parliament as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party and was twice elected to the Lok Sabha as the member for Mirzapur. In 2001, she was shot dead at the gates of her official bungalow (allotted to her as MP) in New Delhi by former rival bandits whose kinsmen had been slaughtered at Behmai by her gang. The 1994 film Bandit Queen is based on her life.