The Supreme Court of India has directed the Odisha government to release Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, convicted for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, on or before August 15, Independence Day.
The order follows recommendations by the State Sentence Review Board (SSRB), which considered Singh’s remission plea on grounds of “good behaviour.” Singh was among 56 life convicts whose cases were reviewed in the SSRB’s July 6 meeting. His release was recommended by the Director General of Prisons after a proposal from Kendujhar district authorities.
Singh, a native of Auraiya district, Uttar Pradesh, has spent over 26 years in jail since his arrest in 2000. He was initially sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003, but the Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.
The case, which shocked the nation, involved Singh and associates setting fire to a van in Manoharpur where Staines and his sons Philip (11) and Timothy (7) were sleeping during a Christian gathering. Singh later expressed remorse, attributing his actions to “youthful rage.”
His co‑convict Mahendra Hembram was released in April 2025 after serving 25 years. Singh’s counsel A.P. Singh confirmed the apex court’s order, though the detailed judgment is awaited.
