Nishad party chief demands CBI probe into Phoolan Devi’s murder

The demand made on Phoolan’s death anniversary came with a few months to go for 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It was interpreted as an attempt to galvanise the community of fishermen and boatmen, a tribe to which Phoolan belonged

LUCKNOW UP minister and Nishad party chief, Sanjay Nishad, wrote letters to the central and state governments, demanding a CBI probe into the murder of former bandit-turned-Samajwadi Party MP, Phoolan Devi, 22 years after her killing.

UP minister and Nishad party chief, Sanjay Nishad. (HT Photo)

Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nishad also marked the letter to Union home minister Amit Shah and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The demand made on Phoolan’s death anniversary on Tuesday, came with a few months to go for 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It was immediately interpreted as an attempt to galvanise the community of fishermen and boatmen, a tribe to which Phoolan belonged.

Phoolan was a member of the SP and became an MP on its symbol.

The Nishad party chief, who after a brief pact with the SP in 2018 Lok Sabha bypolls, has been part of the BJP-led-NDA since 2019 Lok Sabha polls, also clubbed a parallel demand to free properties owned by Phoolan from “SP-backed mafia elements.”

“The SP-backed mafia leaders have been occupying her properties and we demand that they be freed,” said Nishad. The leader also demanded that self-defence centres, named after Phoolan, also be opened across the state.