Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred hearing on the remission plea of Dara Singh, serving life term for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, to July 14 after the Odisha govt sought more time to come to a decision.A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Manmohan adjourned the matter after additional solicitor general K M Nataraj informed the court that the state sentence review board is likely to meet on May 26 to consider Dara’s plea for premature release. In the last hearing on March 19, the court had expected the state to decide on the plea by May 13.Dara had filed the remission plea in July 2024. His counsels have pointed to the release of the convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case while seeking Dara’s release.Dara’s advocate AP Singh hoped the review board will take a favourable decision as Dara meets all criteria for his release. Dara, alias Rabindra Kumar Pal, a native of Uttar Pradesh, has spent over 26 years in prison since his arrest by the CBI on Jan 31, 2000, from a forest area in Mayurbhanj district bordering Keonjhar.The state govt has placed on record its remission policy dated April 19, 2022, which allows consideration of release of convicts whose death sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment after completing 25 years in jail.Orissa high court on May 19, 2005, commuted Dara’s death sentence to life imprisonment and upheld the life term of co-convict Mahendra Hembram, acquitting others. The Supreme Court later affirmed the life sentences of both Dara and Mahendra. Mahendra, now 47, was released in April last year after being granted remission by the state govt.As reported earlier, a trial court awarded death sentence to Dara and life imprisonment to 12 others on Sept 22, 2003 for the killing of Staines and his two sons, who were burnt alive in their station wagon on Jan 22, 1999. On May 19, 2005, Orissa HC commuted Dara’s death sentence to life.
