Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court has directed the Odisha government to release Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, on or before August 15, according to his counsel A.P. Singh.
Speaking to mediapersons, advocate A.P. Singh said the apex court has instructed the state government to ensure Dara Singh’s release by Independence Day.
Dara Singh, whose real name is Rabindra Kumar Pal, has been serving a life sentence for the killing of Graham Staines and his sons, Philip and Timothy. The Supreme Court had earlier directed the Odisha government to take a decision on his remission plea.
The State Sentence Review Board (SSRB), at its meeting held on July 6, considered the remission applications of 56 life convicts, including Dara Singh, and forwarded its recommendations to the state government for approval.
Singh had approached the Supreme Court seeking the benefit of a more liberal remission policy, contending that he had completed more than 25 years of imprisonment.
In April 2025, Mahendra Hembram, a co-convict in the case and an associate of Dara Singh, was granted premature release from prison on the basis of good conduct.
The murders took place on the night of January 21, 1999, in Manoharpur village of Odisha’s Keonjhar district. Graham Staines and his two sons were sleeping inside their station wagon after attending a Christian gathering when a mob allegedly led by Dara Singh set the vehicle ablaze, burning all three alive.
Dara Singh was arrested on January 31, 2000, by the then Mayurbhanj Superintendent of Police Y.B. Khurania, who is now the Director General of Police of Odisha. Fourteen persons, including Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram, were chargesheeted in the case, though 12 were subsequently acquitted.
A CBI court sentenced Dara Singh to death in 2003, holding him to be the principal conspirator in the triple murder. The Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, and the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in 2011.
