READ ALSO:

Rana guilty of killing Phoolan Devi, 10 let off

READ ALSO:

He had wormed his way into Phoolan's circle

Umaid Singh talking to the media outside

Patiala House court

after the verdict on his wife Phoolan Devi's murder case in New Delhi on Friday.

A book on Phoolan Devi.

NEW DELHI: The winter sun hadn't scaled the jail walls when two men calmly walked out of Tihar on the morning of February 17, 2004. One of them was a handcuffed felon, and the other a cop taking him to court for a hearing. That's what the prison staff thought as they stood by witnessing the sensational jailbreak. Sher Singh Rana , the man accused of murdering Samajwadi Party MP Phoolan Devi , had slipped away with an impostor and wouldn't be caught for two years.The conspiracy had been in the works since 2003 when Rana sensed that the trial would end in a death sentence for him. Desperate, he found gangsters willing to fund his escape, and a con artist from his hometown, Roorkee, willing to play the part he had in mind. This man, Sandeep Thakur, charged Rs 6 lakh for leading Rana out of jail that February morning.Sandeep started meeting Rana in jail as his advocate under the name Pradeep Thakur, from January 2004. He bought handcuffs and a police uniform with money provided by Rana's brother, and was told on February 16 to pull off the escape next morning when Rana was due to appear in a Haridwar court.Wearing the police uniform, Sandeep reached Jail 1 around 7am, an hour before the police team arrived. He filled out the form, submitted a fake warrant, handcuffed Rana and even collected the regulation diet allowance of Rs 40 before leading the prisoner out.An auto waiting outside the jail brought them to Kashmere Gate ISBT, where they boarded a bus to Ghaziabad and then parted ways. Rana went to Moradabad, then Ranchi, where he picked up a fake passport in the name of a Delhi Police ACP, and escaped to Bangladesh via Kolkata. Later, he travelled to Dubai, Iran and Afghanistan. But Sandeep's arrest in 2004 put the special cell on his scent.Rana had to visit Kolkata periodically to get his visa renewed, and DCP Sanjeev Yadav, then an ACP, followed his movements. The cops were tipped off in July 2006 about Rana's arrival in Kolkata. After a wait of several days, Yadav's team picked him up from a hotel where he was staying under the Delhi ACP's forged identity.To ensure he didn't escape again, Tihar authorities made Rana wear red clothes, but a court accepted his appeal against this discrimination and was eventually allowed to wear white like other inmates.