Odisha’s sentence evaluation board has rejected a plea for the untimely launch of Dara Singh, 67, who’s serving a life sentence for burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines, 58, and his sons aged 10 and 7 as they slept in 1999, ending months of uncertainty over his remission forward of the September 17 Supreme Courtroom listening to on the matter. The court docket final week directed the state authorities to take a transparent place on Singh’s plea for launch.
Singh has spent over 26 years and 6 months in jail. He grew to become eligible for consideration for untimely launch underneath Odisha’s 2022 remission pointers. Singh approached the Supreme Courtroom in 2024 in search of instructions to the Odisha authorities to contemplate his untimely launch underneath these pointers.
The State Sentence Assessment Board thought of the case at its particular assembly on August 31, and mentioned Singh’s launch may have societal ramifications and probably result in communal disturbances.
In March 2025, the district administration in Keonjhar, the place Singh is imprisoned, really useful Singh’s untimely launch, offered circumstances had been imposed to make sure social concord. In its newest report, the administration reported that about 200 to 250 folks related to the Dara Sena raised provocative slogans outdoors the Keonjhar District Jail on August 15. HT has reviewed particulars of the board assembly proceedings.
The board cited the district administration’s newest report and mentioned it doesn’t have a particular advice, calling it inconclusive, whereas recommending in opposition to Singh’s untimely launch.
The board rejected Singh’s untimely launch in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, citing grounds together with issues over communal concord.
The Supreme Courtroom warned that state officers may very well be summoned if the board continued to delay its determination. On August 19, the court docket directed the board to determine by September 2 and inform it of the result. “You wish to reject it, you do it. You are taking a call. We’ll take care of it. You possibly can’t maintain it lingering like this.”
A Central Bureau of Investigation court docket sentenced Singh to loss of life in 2003 after convicting him of homicide, legal conspiracy, and rioting. In 2005, the Orissa excessive court docket acquitted 11 different accused and commuted Singh’s loss of life sentence to life imprisonment. The Supreme Courtroom dismissed Singh’s enchantment in opposition to the conviction.
Singh was additionally convicted of the killing of Catholic priest Father Arul Doss and dealer SK Rahman in Mayurbhanj. He was sentenced to life in each instances in 2007. The excessive court docket dismissed his appeals.
One of many convicts, Mahendra Hembram, within the Staines case was launched prematurely in April 2025.
Singh’s remission pleas had been dismissed at the same time as authorities information confirmed his usually good jail conduct. He went on starvation strikes in 2006 and 2008 and has by no means been launched on parole or furlough. The excessive court docket and Keonjhar district Justice of the Peace rejected his two parole purposes.
The board deferred the matter in Might 2025, citing his convictions in three homicide instances and in search of additional stories. It once more deferred the case in September 2025, in search of a recent opinion from authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya, the place Singh is initially from. The Auraiya authorities supported his untimely launch in February 2026.
In July 2024, the Supreme Courtroom famous that he had been in custody for over 24 years and mentioned his untimely launch ought to have been thought of.