Man Singh (dacoit)

Man Singh, (died 1955) known as "Daku Man Singh", meaning Dacoit Maan Singh, was a notorious dacoit, or bandit, born in Agra to a Rajput Family.

Biography

Singh took to crime due to poverty and discrimination. Popularly known as "Thakur Man Singh", his ancestors were famous Rajput kings of the late 19th century. Singh lived in the village of Khera Rathore in the Chambal region of India, where a maze of deep ravines and scrub forests had hidden generations of outlaws since the 13th century .

Between 1939 and 1955, Singh is credited with 1,112 robberies and 185 murders, including the killing of 32 police officers. Man Singh headed a gang of 17, most of them his brothers and nephews, who were unchallenged in the Chambal Valley. The police registered over a hundred cases against him, ranging from kidnapping to murder, until he and his son, Subedar Singh, were shot dead by Gurkha troops in 1955 while sitting under a banyan tree in Kakekapura or Bhind, Madhya Pradesh.

S.N. Subba Rao heard Singh speak on stage in 1953 at a public function in Chambal: “I was surprised to hear him speak. He was totally unlike what I had read about him in the papers. Though on the peak of his popularity or notoriety, he was respectful and humble. I was impressed with the contradiction he presented. The government wanted him dead with a big inam (reward) on his head and here he was,...
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