Millions mourn India's Bandit Queen

Devi was shot three times in the head and twice in the body outside her home on July 25

By CNN's Nandini Kochar

NEW DELHI, India -- Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen and member of parliament who was gunned down outside her home in New Delhi last week, is being mourned by millions across India.

Many saw Phoolan Devi as a woman who was greatly wronged, a woman who fought back and a woman who reached the upper echelons of parliamentary democracy. She represented the aspirations of the lower classes.

Phoolan Devi, who came to be known as the "Bandit Queen," lived the life of an outlaw for 4 years in the ravines of Central India.

During her life as a gun-toting bandit she was charged with, but never convicted for the massacre of 22 upper-class men.

Phoolan Devi claimed some of these men imprisoned her and repeatedly gang raped her. She always said she never killed anyone but was fighting against the oppression of upper classes.

After spending 11 years in Jail, Phoolan Devi continued her fight for the lower classes as a Member of Parliament.

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Pappu Yadav, a fellow parliamentarian said: "Phoolan Devi was a victim of oppression, fighting a war against men who raped her."

He too has a number of charges pending against him, including the murder of a political opponent.

Yadav is one of more than two-dozen members of Parliament with a criminal record.

Convicted legislators

G.V.G. Krishnamurthy who was an election commissioner for six years says he failed to bar people with criminal records from standing for office.

He says "murder, culpable homicide, rape, kidnapping, extortion then corruption, till they have been acquitted finally they should be prohibited from contesting any elections."

But, Yadav says India's lower classes must defy what he calls the oppression of the upper classes and sometimes, that involves crime.

But, banning people with criminal records from running for office would in fact throttle democracy. He says he does not understand people who call Phoolan Devi a bandit. He says she was a victim.

Others like GVG Krishnamurthy question such logic. "How could a person who breaks the law and goes to jail be eligible to be elected as a law maker."

Indian law already disqualifies any person to run for office who has been sentenced to more than a term of 2 years, a law tougher than in most democracies including the US, Britain and Japan.

But, analysts feel a tougher law is required and as long as there are people in Parliament with a criminal record such a law will never be passed.