HT This Day: February 13, 1983 -- Crowd fury over red carpet to Phoolan Devi
A large section of the assembled gathering shouted “murdabad” against the State Government as he Director-General of M-P police Mr B. P. Dube got up to speak
Bhind: The surrender ceremony of two big dacoit gangs led by Phoolan Devi and ferocious Ghanshyam Singh was marred today by a slogan-shouting crowd which disapproved of the glorification of dacoits on the occasion.
A large section of the assembled gathering shouted “murdabad” against the State Government as he Director-General of M-P police Mr B. P. Dube got up to speak. A young Lok Dal leader dramatically came up to the dais despite tight security arrangements and shouted into the mike that the police had made money out of the anti-dacoity operations The mike was promptly switched off and the angry man whisked away by security people. Police had to resort to a mild cane-charge to control the angry crowd. When a Delhi news cameraman tried to photograph the beating of a youth by the police he was roughed up by the police and slightly injured in the process.
Rumpus prevailed in the audience of nearly 7,000 for sometimes as some boys from the local students union threw broken bangles towards the dais as a mark of protest against the incompetence of the law and order authorities in arresting the outlaws instead of negotiating for a surrender. Many in the gathering were of the view that these dacoits having committed heinous crimes should have been gunned down.
Phoolan Devi, was the first to surrender before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh. Looking tense and wearing a khaki uniform she placed her head at the feet of Mr Arjun Singh and handed over her Mouser gun along with the heavy belt of ammunition she carried. Seven other members of her gang followed her and laid down arms.
Then came the awesome looking dacoit leader, Ghanshyam Singh with his self-loading rifle, he first bowed before the portraits of Durga and Gandhiji and then touched the feet of the Chief Minister before handing over his arms.
Munni Bai and her husband were among the other 14 dacoits of this gang who also laid down their arms. Though two of them did not carry any weapon, four other lesser-known dacoits were also brought to surrender to make the tally of 24.
Unlike last year’s surrender ceremony for Malkhan Singh, the gang leaders were not allowed to make speeches though Phoolan garlanded the Chief Minister.
Mr Arjun Singh in his brief speech said that the anti-dacoity operations of both the Madhya Pradesh and the Uttar Pradesh poke had brought about the surrender. He added that the policy of the State was to accept the offer of surrender without conditions or concessions.
The Chief Minister said “We don’t believe in take encounters and kill dacoits deceptively. They are an outcome of a society that believes in revenge and terror but now we plan to develop the area and the legend of progress will soon replace those of blood and terror.”
Talking to newsmen later Mr Arjun Sinch regretted the recent incident between the MP and UP police and sought to dismiss the clash as a result of “some misunderstanding”. He said the MP director-general of police, Mr B. P. Dube had ordered an inquiry into the episode and if necessary he would discuss it with the UP Government.
Asked for the Madhya Pradesh government’s attitude in case the UP police wanted Phoolan to be handed over to them for trial the Chief Minister replied: “Let us see.” He did not agree to the view that there was confrontation with UP on this issue.
Interestingly, Bhind police S. P. Rajan Chaturvedi said the MP police did not know what crimes had been committed by the Phoolan gang in Madhya Pradesh. “We will find out, though she says she committed crime here.”
But how then the Madhya Pradesh police will prosecute her? Will these cases be real or only fake or cooked up? It now seems certain that both the Ghanshyam and Phoolan gangs had sent feelers to surrender here about three months ago with both Malkhan Singh and Muslim acting as emissaries. In fact Muslim had also expressed his desire to surrender along with Phoolan.
There is a realisation among police officials that it was injudicious for the Bhind police to engage Muslim in an encounter on Jan. 26 in which he received a gun-shot injury and was now lying in a Gwalior hospital. This incident had caused a temporary setback to the surrender efforts. It was not clear when Muslim would lay down arms though the Madhya Pradesh police do not plan to hand him over to UP.
Those arrested with Phoolan Devi are Man Singh, Gopi, Jeevanta, Munna, Sadhu Singh, Basheer and Mehndi Hassan.
Ghanshyam’s gang includes Munni Singh, Karan Singh, Naresh Singh, Babu Khan, Munni Bai, Bent Ram, Dhobi Sita Ram, Kallu Darzi, Radha Ram, Tunde Mehtar, Jagannath Nai, Ram Shanker and Har Dayal.
Later, talking to the Press, Phoolan Devi gave out a list of her conditions on the basis of which she had surrendered. These are: she should not be hanged or handcuffed, but placed in an ‘A’ class open jail; all the charges against her in the two States of UP and M-P and the kingdom of Nepal be tried together; there should be no police remand for interrogation; protection should be given for her family as also a job for her brother and the village land of her father which was lost in litigation.
Her last condition - a message from Rajiv Gandhi at the surrender ceremony - was not conceded, but the presence of the Chief Minister was indication enough of official blessings.