The Supreme Court has granted two weeks to Dara Singh, convicted in the murder of Graham Staines and his two minor sons, to challenge the rejection of his plea for premature release from life imprisonment.
Singh's plea was rejected by the Odisha government, which informed the Supreme Court of its decision taken by the State Sentence Review Board on August 31. The state told the court that the decision was taken considering the gravity of the offence and the facts and circumstances of the case.
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Staines and his sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), were killed while they slept inside a station wagon in Manoharpur in Odisha in January 1999. Singh was convicted for leading a mob that set alight the wagon. He was awarded the death penalty in 2003, but two years later it was commuted to life imprisonment, a decision that was upheld by the apex court in 2011.
Singh's counsel told the court that the petitioner is over 60 and has been imprisoned for more than 24 years, and that he has been reformed. The bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi told Singh's counsel to amend his plea and formally challenge the rejection.
Earlier this month, the court criticised the Odisha government for not acting on Singh's plea for two years, warning that it would summon the Chief Secretary if the Review Board did not arrive at a decision. The matter will be heard after three weeks.
