The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Odisha government time till August 19 to decide on the remission plea of Bajrang Dal member Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons.
The bench was informed that the state’s sentence review board had sought records but had not yet received them, preventing it from considering Singh’s plea.
The court took note of the submission and adjourned the matter till August 19, saying that it expects the panel to decide in the meantime.
Staines and his minor sons were burnt to death by a mob led by Singh in Odisha on January 22, 1999, when they were sleeping in a jeep. The attackers had accused the missionary of illegal religious conversion. The murders had sparked national and international condemnation.
Singh was among the 14 persons convicted in 2003 by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court. He was sentenced to death by the CBI court, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2005 by the Orissa High Court.
The High Court also acquitted 11 others in the case. Another person accused in the case, who was a minor at the time of the murders, was released in 2008.
The Supreme Court had upheld Singh’s...
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