The Supreme Court of India has directed the Odisha State Sentence Review Board to take a decision on the premature release plea of Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, convicted for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi expressed displeasure over the delay, warning: “Take a decision; otherwise, we will.” The court asked the Board to place its outcome before the next hearing on September 2.
The Odisha government’s counsel informed the court that a report from Kendujhar District Jail was awaited, but the apex court insisted on a timely decision.
Dara Singh has spent over 26 years in prison since his conviction. A trial court sentenced him to death in 2003, but the Orissa High Court commuted it to life imprisonment in 2005. In 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence, ruling the case did not fall under the “rarest of rare” category warranting capital punishment.
The case, which shocked the nation, involved the burning alive of Staines and his sons Philip (10) and Timothy (6) inside their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Kendujhar district on January 22, 1999.
The apex court’s directive now places the onus on Odisha’s Sentence Review Board to decide whether Singh’s plea merits remission, a decision that could reignite debate over justice, rehabilitation, and victims’ rights.
