‘Bandit Queen’ Freed in India After 11 Years : Justice: Phoolan Devi was accused of leading a massacre of 18 men believed to have been involved in her gang rape. But she was never tried.

NEW DELHI —  India’s most celebrated female outlaw, horse-riding “bandit queen” Phoolan Devi, was released Saturday after 11 years in jail to the rapturous cheers of thousands who idolize her as a home-grown version of Robin Hood.

A career in politics may be next.

From her hide-out in the nearly inaccessible Chambal ravines of northern India, Phoolan, 37, was said to have sown terror with her seven-member gang throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the early 1980s.

Police claim Phoolan became the bandits’ ringleader after she was gang raped in her village of low-caste Hindus. To seek revenge, police allege, she led the killing of 18 men of high caste who were believed to have been involved.

Phoolan has always denied involvement, but that massacre in February, 1981, helped make her a hero among India’s downtrodden, as did her adeptness at eluding police and reinforcements dispatched by the central government.

Wanted in 55 criminal cases on charges including murder, kidnaping and robbery, Phoolan gave herself up in February, 1983, after negotiating the terms of her surrender. One condition was that she not be sent to Uttar Pradesh, where she feared she would be killed.

Behind bars, Phoolan continued to be lionized by India’s poorest, who saw in her the personification of resistance against the injustices of the caste system.

Phoolan was supposed to serve eight years in jail but ended up spending 11. The Supreme Court on Friday ordered her paroled, and the beaming round-faced woman, dressed in a sari, walked free from New Delhi’s Tis Hazari court after posting a bond worth $1,620.

The waiting crowd roared its support.

Phoolan’s break came when a coalition dominated by lower-caste Hindus was elected to power in Uttar Pradesh last November. In an apparent move to please the people who voted for him, the state’s chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, announced Jan. 20 that his state would withdraw all charges against Phoolan.

The abiding importance of caste in Indian politics--and the durability of Phoolan’s image as a champion of the social underdog--sent several of India’s parties racing to her jail cell as her release loomed.

Phoolan made a cryptic remark that some observers took to mean that she is serious about trying her hand at politics. Asked where she will be residing, the accused highwaywoman said, “I will live in the entire country.”