The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Odisha government to take a decision on the pardon plea of Graham Staines murder convict Dara Singh within a month after he approached the apex court seeking premature release after serving 26 years of his life imprisonment.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi, which had in the past given several opportunities to the State Sentencing Review Commission to take a decision on Singh’s confession, adjourned the matter to August 19 after being informed that the commission was waiting for certain documents to take a final decision.
“We deem it appropriate to postpone the matter to August 19. In the meantime, we expect the committee to take a decision,” the bench said.
During the hearing, the court inquired from Odisha advocate P V Yogeswaran about the status of proceedings related to Singh’s early release.
On previous dates, the state requested a deadline on the basis that the matter was under consideration.
Yogeswaran said on Tuesday that the committee had requested certain documents from the district court. This will be arranged and sent to the committee.
“You have to take a decision by August 15. Let him also celebrate Independence Day by then,” the council noted.
The committee last met at the beginning of this month, when a decision was taken to summon the records of the convict. However, the committee has not yet taken a final decision.
Singh, formally called Rabindra Kumar Pal, approached the Supreme Court in 2024. He was convicted of burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Odisha in 1999.
In August 2024, the Supreme Court accepted his early release petition and sought the state government’s response.
Read also:25 years later, the long shadow of the Staines’ murders
He claimed in his petition that he maintained good behavior in prison and that he repented of the consequences of his actions. He is over 62 years old and is seeking to take advantage of the state’s early release policy effective April 19, 2022, citing his long prison term and good behavior.
He was convicted by an Odisha trial court in 2007 along with other accused. This was upheld by the Orissa High Court in 2022, and then by the Supreme Court in March 2023. During the entire period of over two decades, Singh claimed that he was not granted parole even once.
In the past, five sentencing review committees considered and rejected his case for clemency. The last such decision was in February 2024.
“The petitioner, having spent more than 24 years (as on 2024) incarcerated in the jail, has well understood and repented for the consequences of his actions taken on the occasion of his youthful rage and is currently seeking the mercy of this court so that he can give back to the society through his service-oriented actions,” Singh said in his petition.
According to the clemency policy, he has the right to be considered for early release after serving an effective 14-year sentence. Singh alleged that his right to life under Article 21 was violated as he alleged that there was discrimination on the part of the state government for denying him premature release even when life convicts in a similar situation had already been released.
The petition said he “deeply regrets” the transgressions he committed over two decades ago, blaming “youthful enthusiasm, fueled by emotional reactions to India’s brutal history” due to which his “psyche momentarily lost self-control”.
He also said there was no personal animosity towards Staines or his two sons. However, he was overwhelmed by the atrocities committed by the Mughals and the British in India, he said.
