Odisha Government Given One Month to Decide on Dara Singh's Remission in Staines Murder Case
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Odisha government to decide within one month on the remission plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons. A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi adjourned the matter to August 19 after the state government informed the court that the State Sentence Review Board, which is examining Singh's plea, had sought certain records that were yet to be made available.
“In such circumstances, we deem it appropriate to adjourn this matter to 19.08.2026. In the meantime, we expect that the committee shall take its decision,” the bench said. The court's order came during a hearing on a plea filed by Singh seeking a direction to the state government to consider his remission application.
Singh was convicted for leading a mob of about 50 people that attacked a camp at Manoharpur in Odisha's Keonjhar district on the night of January 22, 1999. The mob set fire to a station wagon in which Staines and his sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), were sleeping, burning them alive. The crime drew widespread condemnation and strained relations between India and Australia.
Singh was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003, and his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005. He has been in prison for over two decades and is now seeking remission under the Odisha Prisons Rules. The state's Sentence Review Board is tasked with evaluating such pleas based on criteria including the nature of the crime, conduct in prison, and time served.
The case has been a subject of legal and public discourse, with some arguing that Singh's life sentence should be commuted given the time served, while others maintain that the brutal nature of the crime warrants no leniency. The Supreme Court's direction ensures that the state government will take a final decision within a month, bringing clarity to the matter.
