Orissa HC rejects Dara Singh’s bail plea in Roman Catholic priest murder case

First arrested in January 2000, Dara Singh, now 59 years old, is lodged in a Keonjhar jail after being convicted in three murder cases including the killing of Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in January 1999

Bhubaneswar: The Orissa high court on Wednesday rejected the bail petition of convict Dara Singh in the murder case of Roman Catholic priest Arul Doss in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district in 1999.

The Orissa high court has asked the three men convicted along with Dara Singh, who are out on bail to surrender, by September 23 (Orissahighcourt.nic.in)

In 2007, Dara alias Rabindra Kumar Pal along with three others was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Mayurbhanj district and sessions court for killing Doss. Dara along with 20 other associates raided the Roman Catholic Church at Jamubani village of Mayurbhanj district on the night of September 1, 1999, and set it afire. Doss, the pastor, was attacked with bows and arrows and succumbed to injuries.

The high court also asked the three other convicts - Rajkishore Mahanta, Jadunath Mahanta and Cheema Ho – who are out on bail to surrender before the lower court by September 23.

First arrested in January 2000, Dara Singh, now 59 years old, is lodged in a Keonjhar jail after being convicted in three murder cases including the killing of Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in January 1999.

In 2003, a trial court in Khurda district sentenced Singh to death and 12 others to life for burning alive Graham Staines and his two sons in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district. Staines was sleeping with his sons, aged 8 and 10, in a station wagon in the forest when a mob led by Dara Singh set it afire. In 2005, the Orissa high court commuted Singh’s sentence to life and acquitted 11 others. In 2011, the Supreme Court upheld Singh’s life sentence.

In 2007, a trial court sentenced Singh to life for killing and then burning Muslim trader SK Rehman of Padiabeda village in Thakurmunda block of Mayurbhanj district. Singh’s criminal appeal in the high court against the trial court’s verdict was rejected in January this year.

Dara had pleaded that he be set free as he has spent 21 years inside the jail and considering his long custody, the punishment may be treated as life term.