Sampat Pal: All you need to know about the Gulabi Gang leader

A look at the turning points in the life of Gulabi Gang leader Sampat Pal, who courts controversy as she faces a revolt after leading the outfit for more than three decades. Pal has appeared on a popular television reality show in 2012 where she was seen clad mostly in pink sarees - the uniform colour of the outfit members. The group's name literally translated means the Pink Gang.

• Sampat Pal, 49, is chief of the Gulabi Gang active in the impoverished Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

• She leads a group that has 270,000 members in both states.

• Pal was married at the age of 12 to a resident of Banda district of UP.

• At age 16, she opposed a neighbour beating up his wife regularly and decided to show him his place when he threatened her for speaking up for his wife.

• Pal then motivated women in the area to teach the man a lesson. They thrashed him and let him go only after he apologised in public.

• She soon came in touch with social activist Jai Prakash Shivharey who motivated her to fight for women’s rights and launch the Gulabi Gang in 1980.

• Shivharey, 60, national convenor of the gang, has expelled Pal for supporting the Congress while remaining gang chief and for failing to provide details of donations received by the gang.

• Pal has denied the charges and said she will overcome the “conspiracy” against her.

• She stood on a Congress ticket from the Manikpur constituency in Chitrakoot district in the 2012 UP assembly polls - and lost.

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