NEW DELHI: A city court on Friday convicted key accused Sher Singh Rana in the 13-year-old sensational murder of bandit-turned-politician and then Mirzapur MP Phoolan Devi in front of her Ashoka Road residence. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentencing on Tuesday.
Additional Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar, however, acquitted the 10 fellow accused in the case--Dhan Prakash, Shekhar Singh, Rajbir Singh, Vijay Singh alias Raju (Rana’s brother), Rajender Singh alias Ravinder Singh, Keshav Chauhan, Praveen Mittal, Amit Rathi, Surender Singh Negi alias Suri and Sharavan Kumar citing lack of evidence against them.
The proceedings against another accused Pradeep Singh were abated after he died in Tihar Jail in November 2013.
“Except Sher Singh Rana, I am acquitting all the accused. Sher Singh Rana is convicted for the offences under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) under the IPC,” the court said.
Rana, Shekhar, Rajbir and Sharavan were produced in the court from judicial custody while the other accused had been out on bail.
The Delhi Police had chargesheeted 11 men accusing them of eliminating Phoolan to avenge the 1981 Behmai massacre in which she had allegedly killed a number of Thakurs. According to the prosecution, key accused Rana wanted to establish himself as a Thakur leader by masterminding the killing and ruled out any other motive behind the murder of the Samajwadi Party MP.
Investigations were conducted discretely to ascertain whether there was any motive, other than the political aspirations of Sher Singh, for Phoolan’s murder. Further, it was alleged that Rana had procured the gun used for the crime from his friend Rathi, owner of a gun shop in Roorkee.
Rana came here along with Vicky, Shekhar, Rajbir and Uma Kashyap and her husband Vijay Kumar Kashyap in two Maruti cars on the morning on the day of the incident.
Phoolan, 37, was shot dead from close range by three masked gunmen in the heart of the capital’s VIP area as she returned home for lunch after attending the Lok Sabha on July 25, 2001.