Odisha govt rejects Dara’s plea for release from jail

The Odisha government has rejected a plea of Hindutva activist Dara Singh for premature release from prison in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in Keonjhar in 1999, officials said on Tuesday. Singh, who is serving life imprisonment, had made appeal for his premature release from prison as he had already spent 25 years in jail.

The Supreme Court, which is hearing his plea, had asked the Odisha government to take a decision in this regard.

The Odisha government took the decision at a special meeting of the State Sentence Review Board on August 31, the officials said. The meeting resolved that “in view of certain facts and circumstances, the Board is therefore not inclined to recommend his premature release at this stage”, they added.

Sixty-seven-year-old Singh is currently serving life imprisonment for burning to death Staines (then 58) and his two minor sons -- Philip and Timothy -- when they were sleeping in a station wagon in Keonjhar district in January 1999. He was sentenced to capital punishment by the District and Sessions Judge Court in Bhubaneswar, but later his punishment was converted to a life sentence. Recently, the Supreme Court, while hearing Singh’s petition for release from prison, had asked the Odisha government to take a decision on the matter. The next date of hearing in Supreme on the matter is September 17.