Sher Singh Rana
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17 May 1976
Sher Singh Rana | |
|---|---|
| Born | Pankaj Singh Pundir[1] 17 May 1976 |
| Other names | S. Rana |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Organization | Rashtravadi Janlok Party (R.J.P) |
| Spouse | Pratima Singh |
| Criminal charge | Murder[2] 223 (escape from confinement), 224 (resistance to lawful apprehension of another), 419 (personation), 420 (dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 467 (forgery) of the IPC [3] |
| Details | |
| Victims | Phoolan Devi |
| Killed | 1 |
| Weapon | Pistol |
Pankaj Singh Pundir (born 17 May 1976), popularly known as Sher Singh Rana or S. Rana, is an Indian politician[4] who was sentenced for the 2001 vendetta-related assassination of Indian dacoit-turned-parliamentarian Phoolan Devi.[5] In August 2014, Rana was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of ₹100,000 (approximately US$1,600) for Devi's assassination, as well as charges of conspiracy, after a 10-year trial.[6] He was released from jail in 2016 after the court granted him bail.[7]
Phoolan Devi assassination
Rana, along with two other men, murdered Phoolan Devi outside her home in New Delhi in July 2001. At the time of her assassination, Phoolan Devi was a sitting Member of Parliament in the 13th Lok Sabha.[10] Rana claims he was motivated to take revenge upon her for her actions as a leader of a bandit gang that acted primarily against the higher castes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Rana was arrested and confessed to the murder.[11][12]
Escape from jail and rearrest
Rana escaped from Tihar jail, a high-security prison facility in Delhi on 17 February 2004.[13] He went to Moradabad and checked into a hotel. He then contacted relatives who sent him ₹1 lakh. From Ranchi he applied for a passport in the name of Sanjay Gupta.[14]
During the two-month wait for the passport, he visited Gaya and Benaras. Rana then went to Kolkata, where he obtained a three-month Bangladesh visa.[15] Rana claimed that he took a house for rent at Khulna and lived there, posing as Sanjay. After he fled to Bangladesh, he bought a satellite phone for ₹16,500 so that he could contact his relatives and friends without being tracked.[16] Throughout his journey — from Moradabad to Ranchi, Kolkata, Bangladesh and Dubai and later to Afghanistan from where he is said to have brought back the ashes of the Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan.[17]
He received approximately ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 per month and visited Kolkata often to get his visa extended. At times, he did this in Dhaka.[18]
On 25 April 2006, he was re-arrested from Kolkata by SIT, who tracked him down by his subscription to a Hindi newspaper, one of the few people in the Dharmatala area who did so.[19][20]
Release
A trial court in January 2012 allowed Sher Singh Rana, to file his nomination papers from Tihar to contest Uttar Pradesh assembly election.[21] The Delhi High Court has granted bail to Sher Singh Rana and he was released on 24 October 2016.[22]