SC directs Odisha to decide Singh’s plea in Graham Staines murder by Aug 19

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Odisha government time until August 19 to decide on the remission plea of Bajrang Dal member Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murders of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons.

A bench of the court was informed that the state's sentence review board had sought the necessary records but had not yet received them, preventing it from considering Singh's application for remission. Taking note of the submission, the court adjourned the matter to August 19 and said it expected the review board to take a decision before then, Scroll.in reported.

Staines and his two minor sons were burnt alive by a mob led by Singh on January 22, 1999, while they were asleep in a jeep in Odisha. The attackers had accused the missionary of carrying out illegal religious conversions. The killings triggered widespread condemnation in India and abroad.

Singh was among 14 persons convicted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in 2003. Although the trial court awarded him the death penalty, the Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005. The High Court also acquitted 11 of the other accused, while another accused, who was a juvenile at the time of the incident, was released in 2008. The Supreme Court upheld Singh's conviction in 2011.

In his remission petition, Singh contended that he should be considered for early release because he is over 60 years old and has spent more than 24 years in prison. According to a report by Bar and Bench, he expressed remorse for his actions, while the petition stated that the offence had been committed in what it described as an attempt to "protect the nation." He also said that he had never been granted parole.

In April 2025, Mahendra Hembram, another convict in the case, was released from a jail in Odisha after being granted remission on the basis of good behaviour.