New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday asked city police to file response on an appeal by Sher Singh Rana who challenged his sentence of life imprisonment for killing bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi in 2001.

A division bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Ashutosh Kumar posted the matter for Feb 25 and sought police reply on the plea.

A trial court Aug 14, 2014, awarded life term to Rana, who July 25, 2001 gunned down Phoolan Devi, once popularly known as “Bandit Queen”, to avenge the 1981 Behmai massacre in which she killed 17 people from the Thakur community.

The court had convicted Rana on charges of murder and attempt to murder with common intention.

However, he was acquitted of criminal conspiracy and under the Arms Act.

At the time of her murder, Phoolan Devi, whose dramatic life inspired many books and an internationally acclaimed movie “Bandit Queen”, was a Samajwadi Party parliamentarian from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.

She was shot dead outside her residence in New Delhi by Rana and his associates, police said.

Besides Rana, there were 11 other accused in the case.

One of them, Pradeep, died of a heart attack in Tihar jail in November 2013 and the rest were let off.

Rana was arrested July 27, 2001. However, in 2004, he fled from the high security Tihar jail.

In 2006, he was arrested in Kolkata, brought back to Delhi and lodged again in Tihar jail.