India's "bandit queen", Phoolan Devi, was shot dead outside her New Delhi home yesterday by masked gunmen, bringing a violent end to an extraordinary life lived by the gun and the ballot box.
Devi (38) was shot in the head by three gunmen at around 1.20 p.m. as she returned to her official MP's residence from the morning session of parliament, police officials said.
The gunmen were in a Maruti car and sped off after the shooting, said Joint Commissioner of Police Mr Mazwell Pereirra, adding that Devi's bodyguard was also hit. They were chased by traffic police but managed to escape after abandoning the car two kilometres away, Mr Pereirra said.
The lower-caste Samajwadi Party MP, who allegedly gunned down 22 high-caste Hindus in 1981 to avenge her gang rape, was pronounced dead on arrival at Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. She was shot four or five times, and most of her head was blown off, a doctor at the hospital said.
She was dead when she was brought in, he added.
Devi was part of India's bandit folklore, with her life on the run in the ravines of the central Hindu heartland of Madhya Pradesh state in the early 1980s the subject of numerous films and books - notably Shekhar Kapur's 1996 movie Bandit Queen.
Born into a poor family from the low-caste Mallah community of river boatmen, Devi was married at the age of 11 to a man 20 years her senior.
She ran away from her abusive husband after a few months and was abducted several years later by lower-caste bandits who roamed the lawless Chambal Ravines in Madhya Pradesh.
While never denying her years with the bandits, Devi always claimed she never killed anyone.
She surrendered to police in 1983 and was jailed. In 1994 she was released without ever having been tried.
Devi returned to the spotlight when she successfully contested the low caste-dominated Mirzapur constituency in northern Uttar Pradesh state in 1996 elections. She lost the seat in 1998 but won it back in fresh elections the following year.
When news of her shooting reached parliament, MPs in the lower house stood in silence as a mark of respect, and then adjourned.
Devi had recently requested a licence to carry firearms, saying she had received death threats from contractors regarding the issuing of tenders for developmental projects. The request was denied by police on account of her criminal record.
Samajwadi Party officials blamed the government for failing to ensure adequate protection for Devi. "This is a conspiracy by the government at central and state level, that they allowed such a lapse in security of a prominent person like her who was obviously at risk", said senior party leader Mr Amar Singh.
Uttar Pradesh is due to hold state elections soon, and observers said Devi's murder would become an emotive polling issue.