Kanpur Dehat: Until recently, the woman who was called the “Bandit queen of Uttar Pradesh” and people used to tremble even at the mention of her name, is troubled by the bullies today and is pleading for justice from the government. Former dacoit Seema Yadav, who was recently released from jail after two and half years, said that the bullies were harassing her and she was not being allowed to live a normal life.
In a special conversation with ETV Bharat, Yadav said that after her release from jail, some miscreants “part of the administration” recently showed up at her Kanpur Dehat house and asked her to vacate without reason. Yadav said that she had given up arms after the then UP government promised that she will be rehabilitated.
Yadav however lamented the “bullying by the administration” post her release from jail. “The police did not do an encounter of mine when I was a dacoit, but after surrendering, I now want to live a normal life like a commoner, but the bullies are harassing me. And there is no one to listen to me, because the word dacoit is prefixed to my name,” she said.
“I was better a dacoit. At least people respected me out of fear,” she added. Yadav said that the bullies were not even sparing her 6-year-old daughter who she said was also harassed for no fault of hers.
How Seema Yadav Became a Dacoit: Yadav, a resident of Mahrupur village under Sikandra police station limits of Kanpur Dehat district was pushed into the dark world of dacoity at the tender age of 12 soon after she was sold by her husband Kallu Singh to the Salim gang. Yadav, while recalling the days, said that when she was captured by the gangsters, she tried to free herself, but dacoit Chandan demanded Rs 5 lakh and five bighas of land from her father as ransom.
But Seema Yadav's father refused to give the money and land after which Yadav along with Chandan started committing robbery together. Yadav's father Zulum Singh married Seema Yadav at the age of 11 in 1998 to 25-year-old Kallu Singh, resident of Bhawanipur village of Etawah. After about seven months of marriage, Seema Yadav's husband had sold her to the head of Salim Gang.
It is said that when the dacoits heard about Seema Yadav's brother Gambhir, a dreaded gangster, they refused to buy her. Seema Yadav's brother was killed in a police encounter in 1999 which heralded bad days for Yadav. Yadav said that her husband Kallu Singh once tried to kill her by giving her poisoned pulses.
When she raised an alarm, people gathered nearby, but by then Seema Yadav had become unconscious. When she woke up, she was at the house of famous dacoit Chandan Yadav, the latter said adding her husband had sold her for Rs 60,000.
