Cuttack, May 19
Faced with death penalty for the gruesome murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Dara Singh got a reprieve today with the Orissa High Court commuting his sentence to life imprisonment while acquitting 11 others convicted earlier.A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sujit Barman Roy and Mr Justice Laxmikanta Mohapatra set aside the verdict of the trial court to award Dara life sentence and acquit 11 others who had been sentenced to life terms in the case that caused worldwide outrage over six years ago.
In their 106-page verdict, the judges held that there was absolutely no evidence on record that due to individual act of Dara Singh alone the three persons or any of them died.
Pointing out that Dara had been convicted under section 302 of IPC, the court said no particular fatal injury to any of the deceased had been attributed to him.
“Therefore, for the murder of the three deceased persons, Dara cannot be held individually liable though he can be held liabile vicariously along with others by invoking Section 149 of IPC,” the
judgment said.
The court, however, confirmed the life sentence handed to Mahendra Hembram who had confessed during the trial that he alone was responsible for the carnage.
Australian missionary Staines, who ran a leprosy home at Baripada, and his two minor sons Philip and Timothy were charred to death when the station wagon in which they were asleep was set ablaze by a mob on the night of January 22, 1999, at Manoharpur in Keonjhar district.
The court, in its judgement, said the eyewitnesses never attributed any particular fatal injury to Dara for which he could be individually held responsible for the deaths.
“Evidence against all participants, including Dara being of identifical nature, they were all equally responsible for the three murders,” it said, adding “therefore, no justification is available from the evidence on record to single out Dara for convicting him under Section 302 of IPC.”
The court upheld the conviction of Dara and Mahendra Hembram under Sections 148, 435/149, 436/149 and 302/149 IPC and sentences passed against them in respect of such convictions.
All 13 persons convicted by the trial court had gone to the high court on appeal against the verdict of the trial court, the sessions court, Khurda, pronounced on September 22, 2003.
“However,
convictions and sentences of remaining appellants under Sections 148, 435/149, 436/149 and 302/149 of IPC cannot be sustained as there is no reliable evidence on record as regards their
identification,” the judgment said.
Reacting to today’s verdict the CBI said that it was not a ‘setback’ for the agency as Dara’s conviction has been upheld.
Asked if the CBI would appeal to the Supreme Court against today’s
judgment, Padhi said that the matter would be examined at the appropriate level.
Gladys Staines, wife of the slain missionary, now in Townsville, Australia, who had earlier forgiven the killers of Staines, refused to make any comment on today’s court verdict.
“No comments today. I have already said what I wanted to say earlier,” she told over telephone.
The All-Orissa United Christian Forum (AOUCF) also hinted that it may not go for an appeal against the High Court verdict, saying the
reprieve should make Dara a transformed person.
“Dara is now facing trial in three different cases.
One of the cases pertained to the killing of a Catholic priest Arul Doss at Jamubani village under Mahuldiha police station in Mayurbhanj district on the night of September one, 1999.
The other two cases involved the murder of a trader, Shaikh Rehman, in the Padiabeda weekly market subsequently and the killing of the helper of a truck which was carrying cattle.
Baripada (Orissa): Dara Singh, who received a major reprieve this morning when the Orissa High Court commuted the death sentence awarded to him in the Graham Staines murder case to life imprisonment, said he would approach the Supreme Court seeking his acquittal.
“I am very happy at the outcome, but I will go to the Supreme Court for acquittal,” Dara’s lawyer Asit Otta quoted him as saying.
“I have full faith in the judiciary,” he said.
— PTI
