Phoolan spurns court summons, yet again

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Despite being ordered to present herself in a Kanpur court on Monday, Phoolan Devi did not do so.

The dacoit-turned-Samajwadi Party MP has been eluding the Uttar Pradesh police after non- bailable warrants were issued against her by a special judge in Kanpur in connection with the Behmai massacre case.

UP Director General of Police Hari Das Rao says arrangements are now being made to arrest Phoolan Devi in New Delhi on Thursday, February 20, when she attends the inaugural day of the Budget session.

"A large police contingent is being rushed to New Delhi for the purpose and we hope to take her into custody outside Parliament's gates," Rao told Rediff On The NeT. Asked what the UP police would do if Phoolan Devi gained entry inside the Parliament house complex, the DGP said the UP police would then seek the Speaker's intervention to arrest her.

V N S Sengar, the counsel for the Behmai victims, blames the UP government for not executing the warrant against Phoolan Devi. "The fact that the state government has moved the apex court to uphold its decision of withdrawing all criminal cases against her proves beyond doubt that it is not at all sincere in executing the trial court's non-bailable warrant," Sengar told Rediff On The NeT.

He accused Defence Minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav of providing "official shelter" to Phoolan Devi.

Yadav has denied that he met with Phoolan Devi after non-bailable warrants were issued against her. He, however, admitted that she had spoken to him on the phone twice during this period.

Phoolan Devi's lawyers are divided over her strategy of avoiding the courts. While her counsel in Kanpur, Nand Lal Jaiswal, is insistent that, "Phoolan Devi will not surrender under any circumstance," her Delhi-based counsel, Kamini Jaiswal, who has been pleading her case in the Supreme Court, has advised her to appear before the judge.

"Why should I let her surrender when the UP government has already moved the Supreme Court in a special leave petition against the Allahabad high court's verdict?" Nand Lal Jaiswal asked. The Allahabad high court had quashed the Mulayam Singh Yadav government's decision to withdraw all the 55 criminal cases registered against her in 1994. Kamini Jaiswal, in a telephone conversation from Delhi, however, maintains, "I would rather let her surrender and then seek bail."