In this photograph takenon February 25, 2000, India's "Bandit Queen" turned parliamentarian Phoolan Devi sits in the main entrance of federal parliament in New Delhi, to protest against an alleged rise in police atrocities in the northern state of Uttar
The main suspect in the murder of India's Phoolan Devi was found guilty on Friday, 13 years after the iconic "bandit queen" was gunned down in broad daylight.
Ms Devi who transformed herself from illiterate villager to opposition lawmaker, was shot dead by three masked men outside her home in New Delhi in 2001.
Her turbulent life, captured in Bollywood director Shekhar Kapur's 1996 movie "Bandit Queen", comprised many incarnations, from abused child-bride to feared outlaw and finally member of parliament.
The main accused, Sher Singh Rana, had been on trial for 13 years.
Police said after Ms Devi's death that Rana had confessed to murdering the 38-year-old politician to avenge the deaths of 22 upper-caste men she killed on Valentine's Day in 1981.
The massacre, according to Ms Devi, was in retaliation for her gang-rape by upper-caste men.
The judge acquitted 10 other defendants in the case, citing lack of evidence.
"Except Sher Singh Rana, I am acquitting all the accused," said judge Bharat Parashar, according to the Press Trust of India.
"Why have you singled me out when everyone else has been let off?," said Rana after he was pronounced guilty.
A twelfth accused had died of a heart attack while in prison in November 2013.
Ms Devi, born in a small village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in 1963, began life as a fugitive at age 16 when she was kidnapped, reportedly at the instigation of a family member, by bandits who operated in the Chambal ravines in central India.
After being blamed for multiple killings, Ms Devi surrendered to authorities in 1983. She was released from jail in 1994 and two years later was elected to parliament with followers holding her up as a modern-day Robin Hood.
Ms Devi's opposition Samajwadi Party blamed her killing on a deep-rooted conspiracy involving unnamed politicians and members of India's powerful underworld.
Rana had to be recaptured in 2006 after he made a daring escape while being transported to court from New Delhi's Tihar Jail by a police escort -- who turned out be fellow bandits in disguise.
The judge said Rana would be sentenced on August 12, and gave him leave to appeal the verdict at the high court.