THEBUSINESSBYTES
BUREAU
NEW
DELHI, JULY 14, 2026
In a significant
order on remission of life convicts, the Supreme Court has directed the Odisha
government to release Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, convicted in the 1999
murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons,
on or before August 15, following the recommendation of the State Sentence
Review Board (SSRB).
The apex court’s
direction comes after the SSRB, at its meeting held on July 6, recommended
Singh’s premature release on the ground of his “good behaviour” during
incarceration. Singh was among 56 life convicts whose remission pleas were
considered by the Board. The recommendation followed a proposal from the
Kendujhar district authorities, which was endorsed by the Director General of
Prisons.
A native of Auraiya
district in Uttar Pradesh, Singh has spent more than 26 years behind bars since
his arrest in 2000. He was awarded the death penalty by a CBI court in 2003 for
leading the brutal attack, but the Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to
life imprisonment in 2005. The Supreme Court upheld the commuted sentence in
2011.
The case remains one
of the most horrific incidents of communal violence in the country. On the
night of January 22, 1999, Graham Stuart Staines and his sons, Philip, aged 11,
and Timothy, aged 7, were sleeping inside a station wagon after attending a
Christian gathering at Manoharpur in Odisha’s Keonjhar district when the
vehicle was allegedly surrounded and set ablaze by a mob led by Singh, resulting
in the deaths of all three.
During the course of
his imprisonment, Singh is reported to have expressed remorse for the crime,
attributing his actions to “youthful rage.” His co-convict, Mahendra Hembram,
was released in April 2025 after completing 25 years of imprisonment.
Confirming
the development, Singh’s counsel, A.P. Singh, said the Supreme Court had
directed the Odisha government to ensure his release on or before Independence
Day.
