55: The Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi | India

Evidence Locker True Crime

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2019

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Phoolan Devi’s family arranged her marriage to a man three times her age when she was only 11 years old. Suffering constant sexual assault and abuse, she managed to flee from her husband, to the disgrace of her family. Destitute and angry, she joined a gang of bandits and took revenge on upper-caste men who married young girls.

She fell in love with one of the gang members, but he was killed in gang related conflict. She was kidnapped and gang raped over a period of three weeks. When she escaped, she got her own gang together. They marched into the village where she was kept captive and took 30 men, lined them up on the riverbank and shot them all.

Although she surrendered and served 11 years in prison, Phoolan Devi did not stop fighting for justice. She eventually became a member of parliament for two terms before she was gunned down in front of her New Delhi home.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the evidence locker.
0:07.0	Our cases have been researched using open source and archive materials.
0:11.0	It deals with true crimes and real people. Each episode is produced with
0:16.3	the utmost respect to the victims, their families, and loved ones.
0:21.6	Warning. This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence against women.
0:26.8	It may not be suitable for all audiences.
0:29.7	Listener discretion is advised.
0:31.4	Poulon Day. is advised.
0:39.0	Poulon Devi was only 11 years old when she confronted her cousin, Myeden, for taking her family's land in a small village in rural North India.
0:44.7	She would not relent and kept pestering him, shouting profanities when she saw him walking in the village.
0:50.9	One of their confrontations ended with Maedine hitting Pulon over her head with a brick, causing
0:56.4	her to lose consciousness.
0:59.0	Pulon recovered and made it clear that she was not about to give up the fight.
1:04.2	Her constant harassment annoyed Myedine, and he came up with a plan to get rid of his little
1:09.0	cousin.
1:10.5	He knew that her parents were desperately poor.
1:13.4	If he found the right man, he could arrange a marriage and send Pulon off to live with her husband.
1:19.8	It wasn't unusual for impoverished families to marry off their daughters, but the average age for this kind of arrangement was usually 14 or 15.
1:28.0	When Mayedin made the proposition to Poutilal, a man in his late 30s who lived about a hundred miles away, he agreed to take the 11-year-old
1:36.0	Pulan as his wife.
1:38.8	Her father felt that Pulan probably needed to go, as she was unruly and caused problems for the family with her volatile
1:44.9	temperament.
	...

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