The Supreme Court on Tuesday requested a response from the Odisha government regarding the remission plea of Ravindra Pal, also known as Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the brutal killings of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two young sons in 1999.
Singh, who has been imprisoned for more than 24 years, is seeking the application of a more lenient remission policy to secure his early release.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra acknowledged the severity of the crime while directing the state government to respond within two weeks. The court took note of the arguments presented by Singh’s lawyer, Vishnu Shanker Jain, who argued that a more liberal approach to remission should be applied to Singh’s case, given the length of his imprisonment.
The tragic incident occurred on the night of January 22-23, 1999, when a mob led by Dara Singh set fire to a vehicle in which Staines and his sons—11-year-old Philip and 8-year-old Timothy—were sleeping. The vehicle was set ablaze in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district.
Initially, Dara Singh was sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003. However, in 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, a decision that was later upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011. Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Singh, is also serving a life sentence, while 11 other accused were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
Graham Staines and his wife Gladys were known for their work with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organization, particularly in caring for leprosy patients. Despite the horrific crime, Gladys Staines, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2005, publicly forgave the killers and expressed no bitterness towards them.
In addition to this case, another bench of the Supreme Court is currently considering a separate petition by Dara Singh, seeking similar relief.
