Lucknow, Feb. 4: Over 200 cases of murder and kidnapping, around Rs 200 crore spent on pursuit and a bounty of Rs 50 lakh on his head.

Now, nine years after Shiv Kumar Patel alias Dadua, a Bundelkhand bandit whose name was synonymous with terror, was gunned down, he will occupy pride of place with gods.

A statue of the bandit will be installed at a temple near his village in Fatehpur district in Uttar Pradesh on February 13.

Dadua - whose name still spawns dozens of criminals who allegedly extort money from people by claiming they belong to his gang - had himself built a small temple at the site.

He had attended a ceremony to install the idols of Hanuman, Shiva and Ram-Sita in 2006, a year before he was killed in a gun battle with police in July 2007. Mayawati was the chief minister at the time.

Dadua's statue is going to be installed in a larger shrine built by his family, many of whom have ventured into politics, are leaders of the ruling Samajwadi Party and have been calling the shots in their Kabraha village with virtually no resistance.

The new temple was inaugurated today, kicking off a 10-day ritual for the statues of Dadua, his wife Siya Devi, father Ram Pyare Singh and mother Krishna Devi to be unveiled next weekend. The idols are currently being sculpted in Jaipur.

Local lore has it that Dadua would often visitthe temple he had built in the guise of a saint to fox the police.

Now, others are "worshipping" him. "We worship him because he was a saviour of the poor. But some people projected him as a demon," said Bal Kumar Patel , Dadua's younger brother and former Samajwadi MP.

Veer Singh, Dadua's son and Samajwadi MLA, said bhajan singer Anup Jalota would perform at the statue-installation ceremony. "Over a lakh people from (nearby) Banda, Chitrakoot, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh districts have been invited," Veer said.

Dadua's daughter Chiraunji Devi is the local block chief. His nephew Ram Singh is a Samajwadi MLA.

Bal Kumar said the family had invited party president Mulayam Singh Yadav to the event but was "yet to receive word" from him that he would attend.

Mulayam has been known for standing by dacoits who were willing to give up arms and return to the mainstream. He had made headlines in 1981 by opposing a "vow" by then chief minister V.P. Singh - who subsequently became Prime Minister in 1989 - that he would make Uttar Pradesh "dacoit-free".

V.P. Singh had made the declaration after bandit queen Phoolan Devi's gang killed more than 20 people in the infamous Behmai massacre near Kanpur.

Phoolan later surrendered and won as an MP from Mirzapur in 1996 on a Samajwadi ticket.