NEW DELHI: The Odisha government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it had rejected the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons.
“You take whatever grounds you want to challenge it on. Amend your petition and then argue,” a two-judge bench comprising Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi told Singh’s counsel.
Noting that a copy of the August 31 order rejecting the remission plea had been supplied to the counsel, the court allowed Singh two weeks to file an amendment application and posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
The Odisha government rejected the plea at a special meeting of the State Sentence Review Board (SSRB) on August 31. The board said that, in view of the facts and circumstances, it was not inclined to recommend Singh’s premature release at this stage.
The Supreme Court had earlier pulled up the state government for failing to decide the plea.
The government said the SSRB had previously rejected Singh’s petitions on November 24, 2016; June 24, 2019; December 24, 2020; January 12, 2022; and February 20, 2023. The grounds included the possible societal ramifications of his release and apprehensions of communal disturbance.
Singh, 63, has spent more than 25 years in jail. He approached the Supreme Court in 2024 seeking premature release, saying he had served more than 24 years and had repented for an act committed in a fit of “youthful rage”.
In his petition, Singh said he believed in “karmic” philosophy and sought an opportunity to reform himself and remedy the effects of the bad “karma” accumulated through his actions.
A mob led by Singh attacked Staines and his sons, 11-year-old Philip and eight-year-old Timothy, while they were sleeping in their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district on the night of January 22-23, 1999. The mob set the vehicle on fire, killing all three.
A CBI court convicted Singh, the principal accused, and sentenced him to death in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, and the Supreme Court upheld that decision in 2011.
Staines and his wife, Gladys, worked with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary, which cared for people affected by leprosy. Ms Staines, who received the Padma Shri in 2005, said she had forgiven the killers and bore them no bitterness.
In August, the Supreme Court directed the SSRB to decide Singh’s remission plea and inform it of the outcome.
Seeking the court’s mercy, Singh assured it that he would give back to society through “service-oriented actions”. He also sought a direction to the state government to consider his case under its 2022 guidelines for the premature release of life convicts.
Singh, lodged in Keonjhar district jail, said he had completed the qualifying sentence of 14 years under the April 19, 2022, policy and had undergone more than 24 years of actual imprisonment without remission.
He alleged that the authorities’ failure to consider his case in accordance with the guidelines had jeopardised his right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.