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India's bandit turned lawmaker Phoolan Devi shot and killed at her home

Associated Press
Wednesday 25 July 2001 00:00 BST
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Bandit queen–turned–lawmaker Phoolan Devi was shot and killed at her home on Wednesday by three assailants, Home Minister L. K. Advani told the Indian Parliament.

Devi, a member of Parliament's lower house, was shot by three masked men when she returned to her residence after attending the morning session of Parliament.

She was taken to a hospital, where she was declared dead.

The assailants also wounded her guard.

The assailants left a car behind them and sped away in a "three–wheeler," a motorized rickshaw, Advani said.

Devi, the "Bandit Queen" became a celebrity after her life story was made into a movie in the early 1990s. She escaped from a brutal marriage to become a Robin Hood–type bandit and eventually a member of parliament.

She was a prominent member of the Samajwadi Party, which has a strong presence in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

Parliament's lower house was adjourned to mark her death.

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