E-Paper
The dacoit who ‘kidnapped’ Phoolan Devi dead
Sixty-nine-year-old Chheda Singh. who was suffering from TB, died at Saifai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district late on Monday night
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 at Saifai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district late on Monday night. Suffering from tuberculosis, he was admitted there two days ago.
Senior jail superintendent, Etawah jail, Ram Dhani confirmed his death and said the body would be handed over to the family members for cremation. On June 5 this year, Auraiya police arrested Chheda Singh outside his native Bhasaun village in that district where he had come to meet his family members.
After his arrest, Chheda was lodged in 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.
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. On June 5, Auraiya police arrested outside his native Bhasaun village where he had come to meet his family members.
The police had recovered fake ID proofs, including a PAN card, an Aadhaar card and other documents made in the name of Brajmohan. However, with the help of those who knew him, police ascertained his real identity. The then SP Auraiya Abhishek Varma had said Chheda was an active member of Lalaram gang and had absconded 24 years ago. The police had been looking for him since then.
Chheda Singh had as many as 24 cases of kidnapping for ransom, murders, dacoities, against him in Madhya Pradesh and some Uttar Pradesh districts, 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 had gunned down 21 people. Chheda Singh was also involved in the murders of 16 “Mallahs” committed to avenge Behmai killings at Asta in Auraiya district in June 1984.
“Chheda told us he 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 had questioned 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 had come to his native village for treatment when he was arrested.
Phoolan Devi had 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 withdrew all the cases against her and she was elected to Lok Sabha twice (1996-1998) and (1999-2001) from Mirzapur on the Samajwadi Party ticket. She was shot dead outside her Delhi residence on July 25, 2001.
