Dacoit who ‘kidnapped’ Phoolan Devi dies at 69

Dacoit Chheda Singh, carrying a cash a reward of ₹50,000 on his head, was arrested on June 5 this year, 24 years after he disappeared

Sixty-nine-year-old Chheda Singh, who was believed to have been among the dacoits who kidnapped bandit queen Phoolan Devi in 1980 and was part of the hit squad that killed dacoit Vikram Mallah, died in Saifai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district late on Monday night.

Phoolan Devi’s kidnapping and killing of her paramour Vikram Mallah led to the Behmai massacre on February 14, 1981. (File)

On June 5 this year, the Auraiya police arrested Chheda Singh outside his native Bhasaun village, where he had come to meet his family members. After his arrest, Chheda was lodged in the Auraiya jail. However, due to his illness he was shifted to Etawah jail from where he was first admitted to Etawah district hospital and then sent to Saifai Medical College.

Senior jail superintendent, Etawah jail, Ram Dhani confirmed his death and said the body will be handed over to the family members for cremation.

The arrest was made 24 years after he disappeared. He carried a cash a reward of ₹50,000 on his head before his arrest. He had been living in an ashram in Chitrakoot for the last two decades.

Chheda Singh had as many as 24 cases of kidnapping for ransom, murders, dacoities, against him in Madhya Pradesh and some districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah.

Phoolan Devi’s kidnapping and killing of her paramour Vikram Mallah, in which Chheda Singh was believed to have been involved, had led to the Behmai massacre on February 14, 1981 when Phoolan Devi gunned down 21 people. Chheda Singh was also involved in the murders of 16 “Mallahs” committed to avenge Behmai killings at Asta in U.P.’s Auraiya district in June 1984.

“Chheda told us he had decided to vanish into thin air after Lalaram’s gang disintegrated. He changed his name and went to Chitrakoot where he worked as a sevadar in an ashram,” said a police officer who interrogated him.

“He got himself shown as dead in official documents, transferred his entire property in the name of his brother Ajaib Singh,” he said. He came to his native village for treatment when he was arrested.

Phoolan Devi surrendered two years after the Behmai massacre in 1983 in Madhya Pradesh. She spent 11 years in Gwalior and Jabalpur jails before she was released in 1994 without facing any trial. In 1996, the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government in U.P. withdrew all the cases against her and she was elected to the Lok Sabha twice (1996-1998 and 1999-2001) from Mirzapur seat on the Samajwadi Party ticket. She was shot dead outside her Delhi residence on July 25, 2001.