SC gives Odisha govt deadline to consider Dara Singh’s remission plea

The Supreme Court has given the Odisha government a month to decide on the remission plea of a “repenting” Ravindra Pal, alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the murders of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in Keonjhar district in 1999.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi posted the matter for hearing on August 19 after the state government sought time.

“Let him also celebrate Independence Day. You must take a decision by August 15,” the court told the counsel for the Odisha government on Tuesday.

The bench had earlier as well asked the state’s sentence review committee to take a call on Singh’s remission plea.

“A request has been made on behalf of the state that the matter may be adjourned for a short period as the committee which was to take a decision has called for the records and those records are yet to be made available to them,” it said while posting the matter for further hearing.

“In the meantime, we expect that the committee shall take its decision,” it added. 

A mob led by Singh attacked Staines and his two sons — 11-year-old Philip and eight-year-old Timothy — while they slept in their station wagon and set the vehicle on fire in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999.

Singh, the main accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005 and it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.

During its hearing on Tuesday, the bench asked Odisha government counsel P V Yogeswaran about the status of proceedings on Singh’s premature release.

The counsel replied that the committee required certain documents from the district court, which are being called for.

On March 19 last year, the apex court asked the Odisha government to decide on the remission plea.

Singh, 63, approached the court in 2024 seeking premature release on the ground that he has served over 24 years in jail and “repented” the consequences of his action taken in a fit of “youthful rage”. He said in his plea that he believes in karmic philosophy and prays for an opportunity to reform his character in order to cure the effects of bad karma he has gained through his actions.

The plea was filed through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain. Seeking the court’s mercy, Singh assured that he would give back to the society through “service-oriented actions”.

He also sought a direction to the state government to consider his case in accordance with the guidelines for premature release of life convicts issued in 2022 in the three cases in which he was convicted.

Singh, who is imprisoned in the Keonjhar district jail, said he had undergone more than the qualified period of sentence of 14 years under the April 19, 2022, policy and spent over 24 years of actual imprisonment without remission.

He also submitted that the appropriate authorities were under legal obligation to consider his case for premature release under the “Guideline for Premature Release 2022” passed by the Odisha government.

The authorities, he said, failed to act in accordance with the rules, due to which his right to liberty, as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution, was jeopardised.

Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Singh, is also serving life imprisonment in the case and 11 other accused were acquitted by the high court due to lack of evidence.

Staines and his wife Gladys worked with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and cared for leprosy patients.

Gladys Staines, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2005, said she had forgiven the killers of her husband and sons and held no bitterness against them.