Bhubaneswar: Odisha units of the CPI and CPI(M) have opposed any move to grant premature release to Rabindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, urging the Supreme Court and the state government to reject his remission plea.
The two Left parties issued separate statements after the Supreme Court, in an order dated July 14, directed the Odisha government to take a decision within a month on Singh’s remission plea.
The matter has been posted for hearing August 19.
Singh, 63, moved the apex court in 2024 seeking premature release, claiming he had spent over 24 years in prison and had “repented” for his actions committed in a fit of “youthful rage”.
In his plea, Singh said he believed in karmic philosophy and sought an opportunity to reform himself and contribute to society through “service-oriented actions”.
Opposing the plea, the Left parties said extending leniency to a person convicted of a heinous communal crime would erode public faith in the justice system and undermine the secular values enshrined in the Constitution.
“The Communist Party of India (CPI), Odisha State Council has strongly condemned the BJP-led Odisha government’s reported move to secure the premature release of Dara Singh. Such a move violates the spirit of justice, weakens the rule of law, and poses a serious threat to communal harmony and law and order in the state,” the party said in a statement.
The CPI urged the Supreme Court to examine Singh’s remission plea with caution, referring to the subsequent judicial reversal of the remission granted to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.
The party also alleged that Singh had been linked to other incidents of communal violence, including the killing of cloth trader Sheikh Rehman in Mayurbhanj and missionary Father Arul Doss in 1999.
It further claimed that Odisha had witnessed a rise in communal hatred, caste violence, mob lynching and crimes against women over the past two years, and said Singh’s release could aggravate the law and order situation.
“The release of such a convict will not only defeat the purpose of the justice system, but will also send a dangerous message to communal forces, organised criminals and the politics of hate,” CPI(M) state secretary Suresh Panigrahy said.
He said, “The CPI(M) fears that the steps taken in such cases under the BJP government may not be free from the influence of communal politics. Glorifying criminals or giving them political protection is a disrespect to democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law”.
A total of 50 people, including Singh, were arrested in the triple murder case between 1999 and 2000. Of them, 37 were acquitted within three years.
A CBI court in Bhubaneswar sentenced Singh to death and 12 others to life imprisonment in September 2003. The Orissa High Court later acquitted 11 of the co-convicts, while upholding the convictions of Singh and Mahendra Hembram.
In May 2005, the High Court commuted Singh’s death sentence to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict in January 2011.
In April 2025, Hembram was released from Keonjhar jail after serving 25 years on the grounds of “good behaviour”.
Another accused, who was a juvenile at the time of the offence, was tried separately by a juvenile court and released in 2008.
PTI
