Security row over India's 'Bandit Queen'

Devi's supporters threw rocks at politicians cars in protest over her murder

NEW DELHI, India -- Supporters of India's murdered 'Bandit Queen' are criticizing the ruling Bharatiya Janata party for scaling down her security.

Phoolan Devi, was shot dead by masked gunmen outside her home in New Delhi Wednesday.

Her supporters protested on Thursday as her body was taken away for her funeral, throwing stones at politicians' cars parked outside her house.

Police said there is no clear motive for Devi's killing and they are looking into all angles, both political both political and personal.

Devi, who held the post of MP for the district of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, was returning home from parliament when she was attacked.

She was reported to have been shot three times in the head and twice in the body and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

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Her attackers escaped in a car which they abandoned in favor of a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw, the Times of India said on its Website.

The paper said Devi's bodyguard returned fire at the attackers but it was not known if he had hit any of them.

Hundreds of people gathered outside her home as news of her death spread.

Devi's almost mythical status had its roots in the early 1980s when she was on the run as the head of a bandit gang in the ravines of central India.

Film fame

Her story was the subject of numerous films and books, but first came to international prominence in the 1994 movie Bandit Queen, directed by Shekhar Kapur.

Born into a poor family from the low-caste Mallah community, Devi was forced into marriage at age 11 to a man more than 20 years her senior.

She ran away from her abusive husband and was kidnapped several years later by lower-caste bandits who roamed the lawless Chambal Ravines in India's central Hindu heartland.

Two bandits shot dead Devi's gang leader lover and took her their village of where she was confined in a shack and allegedly gang raped by local men.

She escaped three weeks later only to return on Valentine's Day 1981 as the head of her own gang, whom she allegedly told to kill 22 high-caste Hindu men in revenge for her rape.

Surrender

Police say there is no clear motive for Devi's murder

After two years on the run, during which she developed a reputation as a latter day female Robin Hood, Devi surrendered to police in 1983 at a ceremony attended by thousands of villagers.

She was jailed for the following 11 years until 1994 without ever going to trial, and has always denied she ever personally killed anyone.

Devi returned to the spotlight two years later when she successfully contested the parliamentary seat of Mirzapur, a low-caste dominated constituency, in the 1996 elections.

She was defeated in polls two years later but made a triumphal return to parliament in 1999.

The Times of India said members of the Indian lower house, known as the Lok Sabha, stood for a minute's silence after hearing the news before adjourning business for the day as a mark of respect.