Following in the footsteps of late Phoolan Devi and Seema Parihar, another bandit queen from the Chambal ravines seems to have had a change of heart.
Renu Yadav, 24, an erstwhile member of the dreaded Chandan Yadav gang, is now keen to join the Samajwadi Party and “serve the people”.
Renu recently met UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and senior UP minister Shivpal Singh Yadav and expressed her desire to join the party.
Renu’s uncle Shiv Singh Yadav is a SP leader and is also the member of the zila panchayat in Kanpur dehat.
Renu told mediapersons in Etawah that she had been abducted by the Chandan Yadav gang on November 29, 2003 while she was on her way to school in Jamalipur village in Aurraiya district.
“In the beginning, the Chandan Yadav gang demanded ransom from my father Vidyaram Yadav but he could not afford to pay. Then the dacoits used to deliberately involve me criminal activities so that I could have a police record and remain with them,” she said.
In June 2005, Chandan Yadav was shot dead in a police encounter and Renu managed to escape from the ravines after killing Ramveer Gujjar, an accomplice of Chandan Yadav.
She later surrendered and was sent to jail.
Renu, named in more than a dozen cases of murder and kidnapping, is also the mother of an eight-year-old girl. She was released by the Nari Niketan in Lucknow in May 2012 and now wants to “serve the people”.
“I need to get a security cover because dacoits who are still active in the ravines are pressuring me to return and join their gang. I have been given a clean chit in most of the cases and recently I met the chief minister with my demand for security and desire to join his party. He said that he would discuss the matter with his party leaders,” she said.