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Three weeks after Phoolan Devi's sensational killing, Delhi Police are convinced that Sher Singh Rana had plotted the crime to become a hero in the Thakur community with the intention of joining politics.
Such an angle virtually rules out any political conspiracy.
"The motive behind the killing is that Sher Singh wanted to become hero among Thakurs by murdering Phoolan with an eye on joining politics," said a senior police official.
"That is why he is citing the Behmai massacre as the reason for the killing," said the official, after three weeks of intense investigation.
He asserted that Sher Singh alias Pankaj had no connection with Behmai massacre, which was committed in 1981, allegedly by Phoolan Devi.
"Neither was he a resident of Behmai nor was he too old to nurse a grudge against the massacre," he said.
Dismissing the role of any political party or politician behind the killing, the official said that Sher Singh had the ambition of joining politics and so he maintained close relations with politicians.
Citing disclosures made by Rana during interrogation, the official said the conspiracy was hatched some years ago in Roorkee.
Rana was taken to various locations in Uttaranchal to identify the places, where the plot was hatched and the items used in the crime acquired.
Meanwhile, police is on a lookout for Shravan, an employee at Rana's liquor shop in Roorkee, who impersonated his boss in a Hardwar jail.
Raids have been conducted at his residence in Jehanabad in Bihar, but without success, the official said.
Police have also now concluded that Rana was accompanied by Dhanprakash alias Vicky, Shekhar and Rajvir, when Phoolan was shot dead.
Ravinder alias Rajinder, earlier named by Rana as his accomplice and arrested earlier, was in fact in a jail in Hardwar when the crime took place, the official said.
Others arrested in connection with the crime are Keshav Chand Chauhan, a Samajwadi Party worker who allegedly hid two revolvers used in the killing, Praveen Mittal, an advocate, and Amit Rathi, owner of a gun factory.
Rana's younger brother Vijay besides two others, Pradip Singh and Surinder Singh, were also arrested for allegedly forging documents to create an alibi for the main accused.
Complete coverage of the Phoolan Devi murder
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