BHUBANESWAR: Supreme Court on Tuesday gave Odisha govt until Aug 19 to decide on the remission plea of Dara Singh, jailed since 2000 for burning to death Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons, after “verbally” recommending that he be freed by Independence Day.“The state informed the court that the sentence review board had already met to consider the plea but requires time for address verification,” Dara’s counsel A P Singh told TOI. He said the bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi wanted the state govt to ideally release Dara well before the deadline fixed by them to take a decision on his remission. While adjourning the case to Aug 19, the bench said, “In the meantime, we expect that the committee shall take its decision.“
Take Decision By Aug 19, SC Tells Odisha Govt
Government sources said the state sentence review board was “favourably” considering the plea since Dara had already spent over 26 years in prison without a day’s parole and “maintained good conduct”, making him eligible to be freed under the state’s remission policy.Fellow convict Mahendra Hembram, who was released on April 16 last year on grounds of good conduct, said Dara deserved the same treatment. “Dara is optimistic.”
Odisha remission policy makes Dara Singh eligible after 25 yrs
Former Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh, now 62, was convicted of leading the mob that set fire to Staines’ station wagon near a church at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district on Jan 22, 1999, burning the 58-year-old missionary to death along with his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6.Dara, incarcerated in Odisha’s Keonjhar jail, is a native of UP’s Auraiya district.Advocate general Pitambar Acharya told TOI that the sentence review board was unable to take a decision immediately because records submitted by the jail authorities and the district administration pertain to 2025. “The board has sought updated information before taking a decision on the remission plea. This was conveyed to the apex court,” he said.Under Odisha’s 2022 premature-release guidelines, any convict whose death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment becomes eligible for remission after completing 25 years in jail, subject to the board’s recommendation and the state’s approval.The Central Bureau of Investigation’s chargesheet in the Staines case named 18 accused. In 2003, a trial court convicted Dara and 12 others, sentencing him to death and the rest to life. Two years later, Orissa high court commuted Dara’s death sentence to life, upheld Hembram’s life term and acquitted the rest. In 2011, Supreme Court upheld the life sentences of Dara and Hembram.