New Delhi: The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on the premature release plea of Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, the prime convict in the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, to July 14.
The adjournment came after the Odisha government requested additional time for the State Sentence Review Board (SSRB) to deliberate on the matter.
A bench comprising Justices Manoj Misra and Manmohan granted the deferral following submissions by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj. The ASG informed the court that the SSRB is scheduled to convene on May 26 to review Dara Singh’s application for remission.
The apex court had expected a decision from the state by May 13.
The brutal incident occurred on January 22, 1999, in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district, when a mob set ablaze the station wagon in which Graham Staines, a missionary working with leprosy patients, and his sons Philip (10) and Timothy (6) were sleeping. Dara Singh, then associated with Bajrang Dal, was identified as the leader of the mob.
Singh, a native of Kokar village in Auriya district of Uttar Pradesh, has been in jail since his arrest in 2000. He was first sentenced to death by a CBI court in Bhubaneswar in 2003, which was commuted to life sentence in May 2005 by Orissa High Court. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in January 2011.
On July 9, 2024, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Odisha government on the plea for Singh’s premature release. Through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, Singh said he had spent over 24 years in incarceration and “repented” the consequences of his action taken in a fit of “youthful rage”.
Following which, the apex court was informed that his remission plea is under the state’s active consideration.
His counsel, A P Singh, expressed optimism that the review board would rule favourably, noting that Dara Singh meets all requisite criteria. The defence has drawn parallels with the release of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to support the plea.
In April 2025, Mahendra Hembram, an aide of Dara Singh and co-convict, secured early release from prison.
Dara Singh’s plea sparked public debate, with some viewing it through the lens of reformative justice while others recall the horrific nature of the hate crime that drew international condemnation.
