CBI asks court to order death to Staines' killer

India's premier investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has sought the death sentence of Dara Singh for the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in 1999.

Appearing for the CBI, additional solicitor general Vivek Tankha, told a two-member bench of the Supreme Court that Singh had gruesomely committed the murder and hence must not be let off without a death sentence.

"It was worse than a carnage. The hands, legs and the skull of the Graham Staines were burnt," IANS quoted Tankha saying.

Dara Singh came into media glare when on the night of January 22, 1999 he instigated a Hindu mob and burnt alive Staines and his two minor sons who were sleeping in their jeep parked on the outskirts of Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district, Orissa.

In September 2003, the District and Sessions Court of Khurda sentenced Singh to death. However, in May 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment and acquitted 11 others who were awarded life imprisonment.

Tankha on Thursday appealed to the Supreme Court to not conclude the case as a "simple conspiracy". No body involved in such a dastardly act should escape its consequences, he said.

The CBI, apart from the restoration of death sentence of Singh, has also sought the reversal of the acquittal of 11 accused.

Meanwhile, a Christian council has opposed the death penalty "on moral and ethical grounds".

"As a pro-life activist, I oppose the death penalty on moral and ethical grounds as much as I oppose abortions. Man ought not to take human life, even under the demands of the legal system. A life penalty without provision of parole for Dara Singh and his principal associates will fully serve the ends of justice," said John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council (aicc).

He said the lower courts had given Dara Singh the death penalty, which he fully deserved, but it was Staines' widow and the Christian community in India which unanimously opposed the death penalty.