On Thursday, Mahendra Hembram, 50, walked out of prison 25 years after he was convicted of his role in burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines, 58, and his sons aged 10 and seven as they slept in a station wagon in Odisha’s Manoharpur.
Jailer Manaswini Naik said the State Sentence Review Board ordered Hembram’s release because of good behaviour as per the rules. “The decision to release Hembram is part of our policy of releasing convicts who have spent 14 years behind bars.”
Hembram, who was garlanded in recognition of good conduct in prison, linked the triple murder to religious conversion as he spoke to journalists after walking out of the jail.
Opposition Congress lawmaker Manickam Tagore questioned Hembram’s release, calling it a dark stain on Indian justice. “A hate-fuelled murderer who burned alive Graham Staines and his two little sons is now walking free. Mahendra Hembram’s release is a celebration for Sanghis, but a dark stain on Indian justice. What message does this send?” wrote Tagore on X.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological fount Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), welcomed the release. “It is a good day for us. We welcome the government’s decision,” VHP joint secretary Kedar Dash said.
{{/usCountry}}Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological fount Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), welcomed the release. “It is a good day for us. We welcome the government’s decision,” VHP joint secretary Kedar Dash said.
{{/usCountry}}Hembram was released days after the Supreme Court asked the Odisha government to decide within six weeks on the remission plea of Dara Singh, who led the mob that burnt alive Staines and his sons Timothy and Phillip.
The direction came after Singh’s lawyer, Vishnu Shankar Jain, pleaded for his release. Jain cited the Supreme Court’s order for the release of Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict A G Perarivalan after spending over 30 years in jail. “I am seeking a direction [for Singh] to be released from jail on this ground,” said Jain.
Singh is serving a concurrent life sentence in separate cases of the murder of a Muslim trader and a Christian pastor. He was sentenced to death for burning alive Staines, Timothy, and Phillip before the Orissa High Court commuted it to life imprisonment in 2005.
Singh led the mob that chanted slogans of “Jai Bajrang Bali” and “Dara Singh Zindabad” as they burnt alive Staines, Timothy, and Phillip in Manoharpur, where they were for a camp to spread the Bible’s teachings in January 1999. Staines worked with leprosy patients in Baripada after arriving in India in 1965. His murder triggered global outrage, prompting the authorities to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Fourteen people, who were part of the Dara Singh-led mob, were sentenced to punishments ranging from death to 14 years in prison. Of the 14, 12 were in 2005 and 2008.