Odisha rejects remission plea of Graham Staines murder convict Dara Singh

• The Odisha government has rejected Dara Singh’s request for premature release after more than 25 years in prison.

• The Supreme Court has allowed Singh to amend his petition and challenge the rejection order.

• Singh is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons.

The Odisha government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it had rejected the remission application filed by Ravindra Pal, also known as Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in 1999.

A bench comprising Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi allowed Singh two weeks to amend his petition and challenge the state government’s decision.

“You take whatever grounds you want to take to challenge it. Amend your petition and then argue,” the bench told Singh’s counsel.

The court noted that a copy of the rejection order had been provided to the petitioner’s lawyer.

“The counsel representing the petitioner prays for and is allowed two weeks to file an appropriate amendment application,” the bench said, listing the matter for further hearing after three weeks.

During an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had criticised the Odisha government for failing to decide Singh’s remission application.

Singh, 63, has spent more than 25 years in prison. He approached the Supreme Court in 2024 seeking premature release, arguing that he had already served more than 24 years and had repented for an offence committed in a fit of “youthful rage”.

Staines and his sons, 11-year-old Philip and eight-year-old Timothy, were sleeping in their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Odisha’s Keonjhar district when they were attacked on the night of 22nd and 23rd January 1999.

A mob led by Singh surrounded the vehicle and set it on fire, killing all three.

A Central Bureau of Investigation court convicted Singh as the principal accused and sentenced him to death in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.

Staines and his wife, Gladys, worked with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary, which provided care to people affected by leprosy.

Gladys Staines, who received the Padma Shri in 2005, later said she had forgiven those responsible for killing her husband and sons and bore no bitterness towards them.

With PTI inputs