Sher Singh Rana

Sher Singh Rana, occasionally referring to himself as Pankaj Singh, is an Indian author, politician and convicted murderer responsible for the 2001 assassination of Indian parliamentarian Phoolan Devi. He managed to escape from Tihar Jail in 2004 to reach tomb of Prithviraj Chauhan , but was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police at Dharamtalla in Kolkata in 2006. He penned a book Jail Diary: Tihar Se Kabul-Kandhar Tak.

In August 2014, Rana was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 rupees (approximately US$1,600) for Devi's assassination, as well as charges of conspiracy, after a 10-year trial.

Rana, along with two other men, murdered Phoolan Devi outside her home in New Delhi. At the time of her assassination, Phoolan Devi was a sitting Member of Parliament in the 13th Lok Sabha. Rana claims he was motivated to take revenge upon her for her actions as a leader of a bandit gang that acted primarily against the higher castes in the late 1970s and early 1980s and considered a hero for rising against the atrocities of upper caste.

Rana reportedly said that after escaping from the jail on February 17, 2004 with the help of a friend Sandeep, who in the guise of a police man pretended to take Rana to a Hardwar court. he went to Moradabad and checked into a hotel. He then contacted relatives who sent him Rs. 1 lakh through Sandeep. From Ranchi he applied for a passport in the name of Sanjay Gupta.

During the two-month wait for the passport, he visited Gaya and Benaras, where he met his "financer" Subhash Thakur, who was then lodged in a local jail. Rana then went to Kolkata, where he obtained a three-month Bangladesh visa. Rana claimed that he took a house for rent at Khulna and lived there, posing as Sanjay. After he fled to Bangladesh, he bought a satellite phone for Rs. 16,500 so that he could contact his relatives and friends without being tracked. Throughout his journey — from Moradabad to Ranchi, Kolkata, Bangladesh and Dubai to Afghanistan, — he kept getting about Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 per month as personal expense allegedly from the accomplices of an Uttar Pradesh-based criminal Subhash Thakur. He visited Kolkata often to get his visa extended. At times, he did this in Dhaka.

...
Wikipedia