Staines killer acquitted in truck burning case

Dara Singh, alias Rabindra Kumar Pal, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, and 12 other co–accused have been acquitted in a case relating to the burning of a truck and murder of its helper due to lack of sufficient evidence.

Citing insufficient evidence, Baripada District and Sessions Judge Sribatsa Pradhan acquitted Dara Singh and 12 others charged with burning a truck and murdering its helper Shaikh Imam at Godabhanga Ghati in Mayurbhanj district.

Dara Singh and his accomplices were accused of detaining a truck laden with cattle at Godabhanga Ghati on September 15, 1998 and setting it ablaze after unloading the animals.

They had reportedly attacked Shaikh Imam who subsequently died at a hospital in Cuttack.

Public Prosecutor Prasanna Kumar Pani said the acquittal was mainly due to certain lacunae in the investigation. The identification parade of the accused had not been conducted while several of the witnesses turned hostile while deposing before the court, he said.

Out of 13 accused in the case, nine were on bail while Dara and three others were lodged in the circle jail here. During the pronouncement of the judgement on October 30, 12 of the accused, including Dara, were present in the court, while one Madhu Ho, who is out on bail, remained absent.

The trial in the case had commenced on November 8, 2000. Dara is facing trial in two other cases in the same court – the killing of Catholic priest Arul Doss and the murder of Shaikh Rehman, a Muslim trader at Padiabeda.

Dara Singh came into media glare when on the night of January 22, 1999 he instigated a Hindu mob and attacked the Australia missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons who were sleeping in their jeep parked on the outskirts of Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district, Orissa. In the darkness of the night, the mob, led by Dara Singh, torched the jeep, burning the occupants alive.

On June 22, 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheeted 18 persons including Dara Singh for the murder but it was only on January 31, 2000, that Dara Singh was finally arrested in the jungles of Mayurbhanj district, Orissa.

On September 22, 2003, the District and Sessions Court, Khurda, sentenced Dara Singh to death and awarded life imprisonment to 12 others. However, on October 10, Dara Singh challenged the ruling of the lower court in the High Court of Orissa, finally getting a reprieve on May 19, 2005.

While delivering its 106–page judgment, the Division Bench, comprising of Chief Justice Surjit Burman Roy and Justice Laxmikanta Mahapatra, stated, "The eyewitnesses never attributed any particular fatal injury to appellant Dara Singh for which he can be held individually responsible for the death of the three deceased persons or for the death of any of them. Evidence against the participants – including Dara Singh – being of identical nature, they were all equally responsible for the three murders. Therefore, no justification is available from the evidence on record to single out Dara Singh for convicting him under Section 302 IPC...the sentence of death thereunder cannot be sustained and must be set aside."

However, the court went on to add that though the appellant cannot be held individually liable, he can be held "liable vicariously along with others by invoking Section 149 IPC, for the murder of the three deceased persons."

Though the Division Bench called the evidence furnished by the prosecution against Dara Singh "weak and speculative in nature," it said that he was part of an "unlawful assembly" that had committed the murder, and, hence, commuted the death sentence of Dara Singh to one that of life imprisonment.

The Orissa High Court also acquitted 11 others whom the lower court had awarded life imprisonment in the case stating that the convictions and sentences of the remaining 11 appellants "cannot be sustained as there is no reliable evidence on record as regards their identification." The Court, however, confirmed the trial court's decision to award life imprisonment to another convict, Mahendra Hembrum.

The case is now pending before the Supreme Court of India which will hear Singh's appeal for a reduced sentence.