SC warns Odisha govt over delay in Dara Singh's premature release plea

The Supreme Court warned the Odisha government to decide on the premature release plea of Dara Singh, convict in the Graham Staines murder case, by September 17. The court threatened to summon the Chief Secretary if the state fails to comply.

SC Sets Deadline for Dara Singh's Release Plea

The Supreme Court has issued a warning to the Odisha State Sentence Review Board to decide promptly on a plea filed by murder convict Rabindra Kumar Pal aka Dara Singh seeking premature release from his life sentence in the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi demurred on the respondent State of Orissa’s conduct in unnecessarily delaying the decision of the murder convict Pal’s plea and seeking adjournment in the case. The Court refused to adjourn the case today and said that if the State authority fails to decide the plea by September 17, it will summon the State Chief Secretary or whoever is the appropriate authority to Court. “You decide; otherwise we will summon the Secretary or whoever is the authority.. Request for adjournment on behest of the AOR (for respondent State) has been denied. List on 17th of September. On the next date, the respondent Odisha should apprise is what decision they have taken pursuant to our order on August 19”, the Court said.

Background of the Conviction

Earlier, on August 18, the Court took an exception to the delay of the State Sentence Review Board in taking a decision on Pal’s plea, who has served his life sentence exceeding 26 years. Pal, popularly known as Dara Singh, was convicted for the January 1999 killing of Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, Philip and Timothy. The three were burnt alive inside their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Odisha.

A trial court sentenced Pal to death in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005. In 2011, the Supreme Court upheld his life sentence, holding that the case did not fall within the "rarest of rare" category warranting capital punishment. Pal was also convicted separately for the murders of Muslim trader Shaikh Rehman and Christian priest Arul Das in Odisha. (ANI)

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