Should Staines murder case convict be released early, SC asks Odisha

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Odisha government on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving life sentence for the ghastly killings of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in Keonjhar district in the state in 1999.

Singh has sought the application of a more liberal remission policy to ensure his premature release from a prison in the state where he has been lodged for more than 24 years.

While seeking a response from the state government within two weeks, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the offence was very serious in nature.

The bench took note of the submissions of lawyer Vishnu Shanker Jain, appearing for the convict, that a more liberal policy on remission has to be applied in his case. Singh, he said, has already served 24 years and six months.

“We have issued the notice and sought response in two weeks,” the bench said.

A mob led by Dara Singh had attacked Staines and his two sons - 11-year-old Philip and 8-year-old Timothy - while they were sleeping in their station wagon.

It set the vehicle on fire in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999.

Dara Singh, the main accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a Central Bureau of Investigation court in 2003.

The Orissa high court had commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005 and it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.

Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Dara Singh, is also serving life imprisonment in the case, while 11 other accused were acquitted by the high court due to lack of evidence.

Staines and his wife Gladys worked with Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and cared for leprosy patients.

Gladys Staines, who was awarded the Padmashree in 2005, had said she had forgiven the killers of her husband and sons and that she holds no bitterness against them.

Another bench of the top court is also seized of Singh's another petition seeking similar relief.