Phoolan Devi

"Sing of my deeds
Tell of my combats
How I fought the treacherous demons
Forgive my failings
And bestow on me peace"
- Phoolan Devi

Famously known as the Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi was a former Indian dacoit (bandit)
who became a politician, serving as a member of parliament until her assassination. The life
story of India’s Bandit Queen is a tale of abuse, banditry, injustice, and murder. Born into a
low-caste family in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, Phoolan Devi went on to become
India’s most notorious outlaw. Accused of 48 major crimes, jailed for 11 years, and released
without trial; she later went on to become a Member of Parliament and a prominent leader
of India’s lower castes.

Phoolan Devi’s Early Life

Phoolan Devi was born in 1963 to a poor Mallah family — a low-caste community of
traditional fishermen in Gorha Ka Purwa, Uttar Pradesh (UP). Her village was dominated by
Thakurs, a wealthy and powerful community of upper-caste landowners.

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 Phoolan was a special child. Amid an ongoing dispute
over her family’s land, she staged her first protest — aged
10. When her mother told her that her uncle and his son
Maiyadeen had falsified land records to drive her family
from their land, Phoolan marched into her uncle’s field
and refused to move. Maiyadeen — a man in his twenties
— tried to shoo her away. Phoolan refused, insulted him,
and questioned his right to the land. He beat her
unconscious with a brick.

At age 11 she was married off by her father to a man

three times her age. Child marriage of low-caste girls is
not uncommon in India and Phoolan endured
particularly brutal treatment.

After she moved to her husband’s house, she was regularly beaten and molested by her
husband. She returned to her parent’s home. Upon her return, she was shunned by the entire
village. Phoolan’s remaining time in Gorha Ka Purwa was punctuated by episodes of
humiliation and sexual violence at the hands of Thakur men. Yet, despite the hardships she
faced, she continued her fight to regain her family’s land.

The final straw for her move into the life of a bandit came with the re-opening of the land
dispute by the village council, and its transfer to Allahabad High Court — a consequence of
Phoolan’s persistent agitation. Enraged by Phoolan’s determination, Maiyadeen destroyed her
family’s crops and chopped down their neem tree. Phoolan threw stones at his head and
wounded his face, so Maiyadeen had her beaten, arrested and jailed. Soon after her release,
she was kidnapped from her village by a gang of dacoits (bandits). According to Phoolan, her
abduction was arranged by Maiyadeen.

The Making of a Bandit Queen

Following her kidnap, Phoolan was taken from her
village to the Chambal Valley — a region notorious for
its numerous gangs, outlaws, and lawlessness. The
Chambal has a special place in Indian folklore. The
Chambal River, a tributary of the river Yamuna, is
considered unholy. Many myths and legends behind this
classification.

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The earliest mentions of Chambal are found in the epic Mahabharata; King Rantideva of
Dasapura (Mandasaur in MP), son of Sankrti is praised for having achieved unrivalled fame
by distributing beef along with food grains to Brahmans. “A great river oozed from the heaps
of those animal hides and it became known everywhere as the ‘River of Hides’ – Charmanvati
(charman-skin, hide & vati – store of water). The priests cursed the river for this reason.

Yet another legend is that during the times of the epic Mahabharata, the dice game between
the Kauravas and Pandavas was also played out on the banks of the river Charmanyavati (now
Chambal). An enraged Draupadi, on finding she had been wagered and lost over a roll of
dice, cursed the river for being mute witness to her humiliation. From that day forward
whoever would drink the Chambal waters would be filled with an unquenchable thirst for
vengeance.

Phoolan Devi (centre) and Vikram Mallah (left) with their gang of Dacoits
Although it is impossible to ascertain the veracity of these stories, the legend of Draupadi’s
curse grew with the passage of time - as the Chambal Behad (ravines) became inextricably
linked with Baghis (rebels) of every hue and disposition and their relentless search for justice
and revenge. The Chambal ravines’ labyrinthine maze of deep gullies formed by accelerated
erosion, were a natural ally to those seeking to hide or shelter in their folds.

Phoolan was cruelly treated by her kidnappers until Babu Gujjar, the upper caste Thakur
leader of the gang, was dramatically shot by his second in command, Vikram Mallah. With
Baba Gujjar out of the picture, Phoolan and Vikram took control. Together, they spent the
next year raiding upper-caste homes, robbing trains, and kidnapping for ransom. Their spree
came to an end when Vikram was shot by two ex-gang members — a revenge killing against
the low-caste villagers that had taken over their gang.

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With Vikram dead, Phoolan was taken to Behmai village and locked up in one of the
houses for three weeks. She was raped and abused by several Thakur men, before she
managed to escape. By the time her career in the Chambal came to a close, Pholaan was
wanted on 48 counts of major crime. Yet, in the end, one particular event would announce
her story to the world.

Behmai Massacre
Just over seventeen months after escaping from Behmai, on 14 February 1981, Phoolan
Devi is said to have returned to the village with her gang and gunned down as many as 22
Thakur men in revenge. Many versions of what happened at Behmai exist. Some
eyewitnesses claim that she executed the men in cold blood. Two men that survived say she
wasn’t there. Phoolan herself denies being involved in the killings at all. Whatever happened
at Behmai earned Phoolan Devi enough notoriety to last her lifetime. When she punished
her rapists and evaded capture by the authorities, she became a heroine to the Backward
Classes who saw her as their Robin Hood.

Surrender and jail

In the aftermath of the Behmai massacre a massive police manhunt was launched to capture
Phoolan and her gang. While many of her fellow gang members were eventually shot by the
police, Phoolan continued to evade capture and confound the authorities for over two years.

The press ran hysterical stories and state authorities and the police were made to look
ridiculous; Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was pressed to impose a crackdown. Yet the lower
castes and the poor of the region continued to support her.

Nonetheless, after years on the run, as her health deteriorated and the net began to close in,
Phoolan Devi decided to negotiate her surrender. After long negotiations with Rajendra
Chaturvedi, a police inspector from Madhya Pradesh, Indira Gandhi sent delegates with an
offer. Phoolan negotiated better terms.

She would serve no longer than 8 years in jail; would only surrender to the Madhya Pradesh
police, as she didn’t trust the UP police and agreed only to lay down her arms in front of
portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and the Hindu goddess Durga, not the police.

Dressed in police khakis and carrying her rifle, on 12th February 1983, in front of a crowd
of 8,000 people and 300 police, Phoolan Devi bowed before Durga and Gandhi and
surrendered. Despite the deal that was struck, Devi was jailed for 11 years. Worse still, as
Arundhati Roy has written, while in jail, Phoolan was rushed to hospital, bleeding heavily
from an ovarian cyst. Her womb was removed without her consent.

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 Phoolan Devi at the time of her surrender
Asked by her biographer why this had been necessary, the prison doctor joked that the
decision was made to “stop her breeding any more Phoolan Devis.” Phoolan Devi was
released on parole without facing trial in 1994.

Member of Parliament and Assassination

Phoolan Devi, Member of Parliament for Mirzapur (UP), via Hindustan Times

One year after her release from jail, Phoolan became involved in the politics of the Samajwadi
Party, a socialist political party of the lower castes based in UP. In the wake of the Behmai
Massacre, Phoolan Devi was immortalized as India’s bandit queen. Inevitably, her cult status
and mythology as a reincarnation of the goddess Durga sharpened her electoral prospects.

In 1996, Phoolan Devi was elected and served as the Member of Parliament for Mirzapur
(UP). She lost her seat in 1998 but was re-elected to the same seat the following year. Outside

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of parliament, she became a powerful voice within the emerging backward caste movement
(OBC) in Uttar Pradesh. Yet her cult hero status also stirred resentment among her enemies.

On 25th July 2001, she was shot three times in the body and twice in the head by masked
gunmen outside her home in New Delhi. Her killers fled the scene. Phoolan Devi, at the age
of 37, died before reaching the hospital.

Delhi Police concluded that her killing was an upper-caste revenge attack. However, despite
eyewitness accounts describing two gunmen and a getaway driver, only one man was charged.
A 38-year-old Thakur man, Sher Singh Rana, was sentenced to life in prison. He told police
that the murder was revenge for the Behmai Massacre. Rana has since risen to become a
Thakur idol. After a spectacular jailbreak in 2004, he fled India for Afghanistan. He then
spuriously claimed to have repatriated the remains of a 12th-century Thakur king. Rana was
re-arrested in 2006. In 2016 he was released on bail and continues to fan the flames of inter-
caste violence in UP.

Bandit Queen – A Cult Hero, Killer or Victim ?

Phoolan Devi: Bandit Queen or cold-hearted killer?

Phoolan Devi’s transition from outlaw to lawmaker is nothing short of remarkable. In the
eyes of her admirers, she was a revolutionary. A survivor of several brutal episodes of sexual
violence, that fought valiantly for social justice. To her detractors, she was a cold-blooded
killer, prone to fits of rage and wanton violence, with no regard for law and order.

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In other quarters she is framed more crudely as a vengeful woman. Take for instance the
narrative of Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994). Bandit Queen transfigures Phoolan
Devi’s story into a tale of rape and revenge.
While Kapur’s film claims to be the “true story” of Devi’s life, Phoolan herself begged to
differ. Talking to Mary Ann Weaver of The Atlantic, Phoolan Devi expressed outrage that
she was depicted “as a snivelling woman, always in tears, who never took a conscious
decision in her life.” As for her exploits, she was “simply shown as being raped over and
over again.”

Phoolan Devi is a 1985 Bengali action movie Bandit Queen is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language
biographical action-adventure film[

However, in reality, definitive claims of who Phoolan Devi was — cult hero, killer, or
victim — do little else but flatten the complexity of her character. On the one hand,
Phoolan Devi was a strong advocate for the rights of the poor and a vociferous campaigner
against upper-caste oppression. On the other, she engaged in a contradictory embrace of the
symbolism of the Ayodhya movement and the conservative politics of Hindu identity.
Whatever the truth of Phoolan Devi may be, she is, without doubt, a rare example of a
poor, low-caste woman who rose from the bottom of Indian society to the heights of
political office. Her life has inspired several biographies and her dictated autobiography was
entitled I, Phoolan Devi.

pg. 8
pg. 9
Hazi Mastan
Biographical sketches of Hazi Mastan portray him as the Robinhood of the slums, mainly
Dharavi in Mumbai, who endeared himself to the poor due to his involvement in charity
work. He was an underworld don and smuggler based in Mumbai in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mastan spawned a massive gang empire that was financed by extortion, bootlegging and
black marketing of movie tickets.

Early Life
Mastan Haider Mirza, popularly known as Haji Mastan, Bawa or Sultan Mirza was born on
March 1, 1926 in Panaikulam village near Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu. Mastan's father Haider
Mirza, was a hard-working but poor farmer and migrated to Mumbai with Mastan in 1934
after failing to make ends meet in his village. They ran a small cycle-repair shop near
Crawford Market that barely fed the family. But Mastan soon realized that even after all the
hard work, he could only make a meagre Rs 5 a day.

As he would walk home to his basti (slum) he would stare at the cars of Mumbai's rich and
famous, their Malabar Hill bungalows, and resolved to be rich and famous himself one day.
He would even see the grand theatres, such as Alfred and Novelty, on South Mumbai's
Grant Road.

Starting a New Carrier - Smuggling

After working for more than 8 years at the cycle repairing shop, Mastan realised that his
profession will not give him any opportunity to fulfil his desire.

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While in his early twenties, Mastan met Galib Sheikh (an Arab Gentleman) who found
Mastan a suitable person for helping him to smuggle gold biscuits out of the docks. Mastan
started making a neat sum of money by helping Galib Sheikh in his smuggling business.

The year 1956 was a major turning point in Mastan's life when he came in contact with
Sukur Narayan Bakhia. The two became partners in smuggling and divided territories
among themselves. Mastan handled the Mumbai port and Bakhia handled the Daman
port. The smuggled items would come to Daman port from the Persian Gulf and to
Mumbai from Aden. He also took care of Bakhia's consignments. He made millions
through smuggling gold, silver and electronic goods.

He also had close links with a well-known Dalit leader with criminal records, C. Pasupathy
Pandiyan from Thoothukudi for his underworld sea contacts in southern Tamil Nadu.
Haji Mastan's rise was phenomenal but he was imprisoned during the Indian Emergency
(1975 - 77). Surprisingly when he was released after 18 months from jail he emerged as a
hero and was a reformed man. Haji Mastan never indulged in smuggling again after all the
cases against him were disposed off.

Interestingly, Haji Mastan never fired even a single bullet in his life and had never been
involved in any sort of brawl with anyone – rival smugglers or police.

Political Life
Mastan Mirza alias Haji Mastan, was much sought after by politicians and film stars alike.

Haji Mastan helped many leaders escape to Tamil Nadu through C. Pasupathy Pandiyan
during the Indian Emergency (1975–77). Throughout his life, he never went to jail except
during the Emergency. While in prison for 18 months, he came close to Jaiprakash Narayan
and got influenced by his ideologies. In prison, he started learning Hindi.

After coming out of the Jail, he visited Haj, and thereafter he came to be referred as “Haji
Mastan.”

Till 1984, Haji Mastan or Mastan Mirza was in Congress. But after Indira Gandhi’s death
in October 1984, his relationship with congress declined. He left Congress and formed a
political party Dalit Muslim Surakhsha Maha Sangh which had Doulatram Kawle as a co-
operator. Aslam Kiratpuri, a well known journalist, gave him ideas on how to speak in
public meetings after which he became a good speaker.

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He devoted time to holding periodic meetings with the poor and the needy in the minority
community-dominated localities of south Mumbai and held public rallies at Mastan Talao
near Nagpada police station.

He also joined hands with anti-drug abuse activists like Dr Yusuf Merchant and implored
the youth to stay away from killer drugs.

He tried to fight the 1985 Lok Sabha election on a Dalit Muslim Suraksha Mahasangh
ticket from Mumbai South against Murli Deora, but withdrew in Deora’s favour. After he
withdrew from election, both Muslims and Dalits ditched him. In 1985 his party was
renamed as Bharatiya Minorities Suraksha Mahasangh which is currently led by Sundar
Shaekhar, who claims to be the adopted son of Haji Mastan..

As stated by Sunder Shekhar:

Hazi Mastan was a pucca Congressi. Senior Congress leaders like Vasantdada Patil, Murli
Deora and Sushil Kumar Shinde used to meet him regularly. He would meet small leaders
at a hotel in central Mumbai and big leaders would meet at a five-star hotel in south
Mumbai. They used to eat and drink heartily, enjoyed gossip/jokes, and discussed political
matters, especially during elections.

People like (now Union Minister) Ramdas Athawale and Dalit leader Jogendra Kaware
were regulars at his residence. Ramdas Athavale (RPI leader) would stand outside the room
while Hazt Mastan and Kaware held meetings. At times, he would go to Delhi to meet the
central leaders.

As recalled by Shekhar, Ramdas Athawale came from a very poor family, very simple boy,
who often came hungry... he wanted work and the kind-hearted Haji Mastan used to help
him and many other youngsters like him.

Haji Mastan and Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray were buddies, born in the same year, just
two months apart. They had frequent rendezvous at their favourite eatery in Juhu, Bagur

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Hotel, with fine beverages and dining. Balasaheb used to be accompanied by his close aide,
Babban Salvi. Besides Bal Thackeray, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sharad Pawar,
Sushilkumar Shinde, Vasantdada Patil, Murli Deora also used to meet Mastan regularly and
Shekhar had personally witnessed many such meets.

In January 2020, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said smuggler Haji Mastan would
be treated like “an honoured guest” at Mantralaya, the Maharashtra administrative
headquarters. “Mastan Mirza couldn’t go far in politics. He was close to several
politicians,” said Urdu journalist Sarfraz Arzoo.

Celebrity Gangster of the City

Realizing that the film producers had to struggle to finance their films, Mastan jumped into
film financing and eventually turned to become a filmmaker himself. He expanded his clout
in the film industry by giving money to directors and studios for film production, Haji
Mastan became the first celebrity gangster of the city. He was a successful distributor and
excelled in the cinema business.

Mastan began to produce films himself as his influence in Bollywood grew and planned his
own foray into films with a project titled Mere Garib Nawaz, followed by other movies.

He was also well known for his links with the actor Dilip Kumar. He had excellent
relationships with the who's who of Bollywood, names such as Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra,
Feroz Khan, Sanjeev Kumar and Raj Kapoor. While the movie Deewar was in the pipeline,
Salim Khan and Amitabh Bachchan often visited him.

Personal Life:
He got married with Shahjehan Begum. His daughter’s name is Shamshad Supariwala. Haji
Mastan had no son, so he adopted Sundar Shaekhar who was born Hindu and didn’t
convert to Islam, but Haji Mastan used to call him ‘Suleman Mirza’. Sundar Shaekhar now
lives in Colaba.

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He courted a few Bollywood starlets. Mastan had a crush on Madhubala (the leading
Bollywood actress of that era) and wanted to marry her. However, their marriage couldn’t
see the light of the day, so, he married to another Bollywood actress, Sona, who was a
lookalike of Madhubala. He financed a few films for her. He gifted her a bungalow
situated near actor Dev Anand's house at Juhu.

Hazi Mastan and Sona Shamshad Supariwala Hazi Mastan and Shaekhar

Although he possessed a huge mansion in a posh locality off Peddar Road, opposite Sophia
College, he virtually lived his life in a small room built on the terrace of his bungalow. His
room used to be full of Tamil newspapers, specially flown in from Chennai as that was the
only language that Mastan knew to read.

Haji Mastan was a man of style once out of his home and used to travel in a chauffeur
driven white Mercedes-Benz 200D which was a status symbol in those days. He always
wore a pure white designer wear sporting a pack of imported cigarettes in hand.
July 31, 1994 Haji Mastan alias Mastan Mirza died at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital
due to cardiac arrest. He was 68 at the time of his death.
In 2010 movie named Once Upon a Time in Mumbai was released which was inspired by
his life. The character of Sultan Mirza was played by Ajay Devgn. In the movie Deewar,
Amitabh Bachchan's role was inspired by him.

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Mohar Singh Gurjar
“My words are the law of Chambal and my gun delivers judgment”- Ruling the ravines
from 1958 to 1972, Mohar Singh was the last of a generation of bandit chieftains whose
reign of terror still haunts the memories of locals. He was seen as a Robin Hood figure by
poor villagers – a reputation he deployed in later life to enter politics and even appear in a
Bollywood film. Mohar Singh preferred the term “baaghi” (rebel) to dacoit and claimed to
have been driven to a life of crime by an unjust social system.
Mohar Singh Gurjar (1926 or 1927 – May 5, 2020) was a luxuriantly moustachioed
bandit (dacoit) who became a political leader. He was one of the most dreaded dacoits of
the Chambal valley in the 1960s. Singh had 315 cases against him, of which 85 were
murder cases. He spent eight years in jail, later starring in a Bollywood movie and serving
two terms as a local councillor.

Criminal Career
In late 1950s Mohar initiated into banditry at the age of 18.
He had lodged a complaint against some people who assaulted him in a village in Jatpar in
Bhind district in the early 1950s and had gone to lodge complaint against them in the local
police station. However, the police filed a case against him instead, provoking him to turn a
‘rebel’.
A member of the Gurjar community from Mehgaon village in Bhind district of MP, his
relatives deprived him of his rights to ancestral farmland. He fought a legal battle but the
police favoured the rich. It was the last straw. When most chieftains rebuffed on account of

pg. 15
his youth, Mohar decided to go it alone, recruiting local youths. The focus on petty
kidnappings changed to bigger prey as the gang grew in numbers.
In the year 1955 Mohar Singh, then 29 years old, became an outlaw after killing the man in
the property dispute, retreating to the heavily wooded ravines of the Chambal.
Often dressed in police uniforms, his gang would strike before vanishing into the forests,
taking hostages with them. He claimed that they had also killed at least 200 people. At the
peak of his fame in the late 1960s a reward of Rs 2 lakhs was offered for his capture, a
substantial sum at the time.

“We were driven to the ravines due to a tedious legal system which denied us and many
others our rights,” he said in 1972. “I had a dispute over land which dragged on for so long
that I rebelled against the system and wielded the gun.”
Mohar Singh carried a reward of 12 Lakh rupees on his head in the late 1960s and '70s. He
surrendered in front of Jayaprakash Narayan in 1972 along with his gang of over 150
dacoits.
At the time of his surrender, as part of the negotiation, he was promised that he would not
be given a death sentence and was kept in an open prison. He was given agricultural land by
the government as a means of livelihood.

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Political Career
“In 1972, when Jayaprakash Narayan suggested to the then PM Indira Gandhi that he
should negotiate terms for the surrender of Chambal’s dacoits, she had said she would agree
only if Mohar Singh, too, gave up arms,” archaeologist K.K. Muhammed says.
In April 1972, at the age of 40, he gave up arms during an amnesty drive, on his terms —
no gallows, special treatment in jail and a rehab package. He was sentenced to 20 years in
jail, which was reduced to 8 years for his ‘gentlemanly’ behaviour.
Mohar Singh was released in 1980. Mohar Singh led a peaceful life as a farmer with 35
acres of land gifted by the govt. Mohar had acquired a Robin Hood image, a reputation he
deployed in later life to enter politics and even appear in a Bollywood film, among the poor
villagers by funding marriages and helping the needy with proceeds of his loot and ransom.
After his release from jail, he entered into local politics. He was elected unopposed in a
local body election in 1995. He was elected to Mehgaon municipality and served as a
councilor for two terms in the 1990s. He was associated with Indian National Congress, he
later supported Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh.
Dressed in a dhoti-kurta and Nehru jacket, in his eighties Singh had the appearance of a
respected village elder, only his thick handlebar moustache, the ends of which curled
upward in loops, recalling his outlaw past.

Mohar Singh (2017)

In his final years Singh campaigned to restore a ninth century group of temples where the
Chambal dacoits would pay homage to their deities before launching any operation. In

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September 2019, Singh had written a letter to the prime minister Narendra Modi for the
restoration of the Bateswara temple.

The Bateshwar Hindu temples (or Batesara, Bateśvar) are a group of nearly 200 sandstone Hindu temples and
their ruins in north Madhya Pradesh in post-Gupta, early Gurjara-Pratihara style of North Indian temple
architecture. Believed to be a smaller version of the famous Angkor Wat in Cambodia,, it is about 35
kilometres north of Gwalior and about 30 kilometres east of Morena town. The temples are mostly small and
spread over about 25 acres site. They are dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Shakti - representing the three major
traditions within Hinduism. The site is within the Chambal River valley ravines, on the north-western slope
of a hill near Padavali known for its major medieval era Vishnu temple. The Bateshwar temples were built
between the 8th and the 10th-century. The site is likely named after the Bhuteshvar Temple, the largest Shiva
temple at the site. It is also referred to as Batesvar temples site or Batesara temples site. The temples as they
now appear are in many cases reconstructed from the fallen stones in a project begun by the Archaeological
Survey of India in 2005.

A temple complex in Chambal, which is believed to have inspired the design of our Parliament

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In popular culture
Mohar Singh starred in a 1982 Hindi film named, Chambal Ke Daku, which marketed with
the tagline: 'first time real dacoits on-screen'.

Poster of the film made on Mohar Singh's life, in which he also acted
Mohar Singh claimed to have principles - he left women alone and would never attack a
member of his own caste or a Brahmin, the Hindu priestly caste.

In the 1960s and 1970s, tales of the exploits of Singh and other Chambal dacoits inspired a
series of “daku” films, but Singh was inclined to dismiss Bollywood mythologising: “For
one, we never came charging on horses like they showed in Bollywood films. We used to
travel on foot.”

“Whatever I did, I did for a cause,” Mohar Singh told an interviewer in 1994. “Whoever
from my community got into a fight over land and asked for my help, I would take up the
cause. We would go into a village and be garlanded. We would give money to poor people
so that they could get their daughters married.”

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In May 2006, it was reported that a film named Pakad was being made, featuring three
dacoits Malkhan Singh, Man Singh and Mohar Singh and the story was reported to be
written by M. C. Dwivedi, former chief of police of Uttar Pradesh.

Death

Mohar Singh's funeral in Mehgaon village of MP’s Bhind Villagers carry Mohar Singh's body
district
He died on 5th May 2020 at the age of 92. He is survived by his two sons and a daughter.

pg. 20
Kondampalli Mastan Vali
From driver to smuggler to politician - In 2014, he joined YSR Congress and was
elected Mandal president of Chagalamarri.

Updated: April 27, 2015 03:53 IST

Kondampalli Mastan Vali, 35 and semi-literate, started off as a driver 15 years ago
delivering lemons to Chittoor and Nellore. During this, he met people involved in red
sanders smuggling. “Smugglers from Chennai and other places outsourced the work to Vali,
a local. Later, he started his own gang,’’ an official said. As most cases against him did not
stick due to lack of evidence, police booked him under Preventive Detention Act and he
spent six months in jail.

After release, he moved to Hyderabad and produced a film. In 2014, he joined YSR
Congress and was elected Mandal president of Chagalamarri. A while later, police then
found an abandoned vehicle with red sanders logs and traced the driver who spilled the
beans on Vali.

pg. 21
pg. 22
Babul Supriyo joined TMC to evade coal
theft, cow smuggling cases: BJP MP
Jagannath Sarkar

ANI | Sep 19, 2021, 10.18 PM IST

NEW DELHI: BJP MP from West Bengal's Ranaghat Jagannath

Sarkar on Sunday alleged that former Union minister Babul Supriyo
joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to evade the allegations of his
involvement in the coal theft and cow smuggling cases.
"A month ago, Mamata didi had said that a Union minister is
involved in coal theft and cow smuggling case. She was talking
about Babul Supriyo. He had first said that he is retiring from politics
then suddenly he left the BJP, a party that is in power at the Centre
only to join a regional party," Sarkar told ANI.

"Now the question is why did he go to TMC? He has joined the TMC
because the Union minister who is associated with coal theft and
cow smuggling cases is Babul Supriyo, so he has joined the TMC for
his own survival, to escape these cases," he added. The BJP MP
further alleged that Supriyo joined the TMC to evade the
Enforcement Directorate (ED).

pg. 23