Earlier, too, the apex court had sought the view of the Odisha government on Dara’s Singh’s early release but the state government had sought 45 days’ time. The deadline is almost over.

The Spine-Chilling Incident

Staines, along with his two minor sons, was burnt alive to death inside a station wagon vehicle on the night of January 22-23, 1999. The horrendous crime had stunned the entire world.

Reporting on the unspeakable act from Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district had somehow remained shrouded by various interpretations as the then media, except two platforms, could not reach the spot on January 22, which is roughly 150 km from the capital, Bhubaneswar.

However, this reporter, then representing a leading national electronics media channel, along with another national channel drove to Manoharpur at the dead of the night negotiating arduous tracks through thick forests.

It was almost past midnight when we reached the village, which was palpably bathed in a perplexing silence. The silence was too disturbing.

As we passed through the row of houses flanking the pathway, we could see men and women sitting on their verandahs, each a picture of shock and mental torment.

On our right hand, we saw what we had heard. The sight was flabbergasting and rendered each of us speechless. The station vehicle was still on fire from below and its deflated tyres were still in smoldering. Fumes were still emanating from inside the vehicle.

Australian missionary Graham Staines with his family. His two minor boys were burnt alive along with him in 1999 in Odisha, by Bajrang Dal activists led by Dara Singh. (File photo.)

A little away from the vehicle, we could catch a glimpse of the charred remains of three bodies, simply indistinguishable and nerve wracking. Two small corpses and one that of an adult.

The police had already reached the site of the crime and were preparing to send the mortal remains in a police van to Bhubaneswar.

Before that, the perpetrators of the heinous crime, led by Dara Singh, the main accused and his accomplices, had fled chanting ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ as if self-cheering the horrendous act.

We gathered from the benumbed villagers that when the vehicle, stuffed with hay stacks, was on fire, the gang led by Singh, armed with weapons, did not allow any villager to come near the burning vehicle.

The villagers saw two little hands faintly visible, desperately banging the windscreens for help. But the screams were lost in the din of ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ chants by the killers.

It was late evening on January 22, 1999, and Staines was reportedly holding some kind of formalities or feast after some conversions to Christianity. As we could gather from the villagers, mostly from the tribal community, Staines had been active in Manoharpur and in a few adjoining pockets for seeking conversions.

That night was different. Little did Staines realise that a plan was being hatched by a gang of about 20 people led by Dara Singh to attack him. The missionary, perhaps, had no inkling of it and had brought along his two sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6).

The seething vengeance of Dara Singh and his accomplices nearly exploded into a massacre. They stuffed haystacks underneath the vehicle in which the three were sleeping and set it on fire. A few men and women of the village told this reporter how a rage of revenge became cataclysmic when three live human beings (including two minors) were burnt to death alive before the entire village. Humanity was literally shamed.

The perpetrators stood on guard till the indescribable end. “We had no courage to dare the armed gang and douse the inferno where three souls were being charred to death”, I recall a senior villager called Suresh Hembram confiding to this reporter.

“We felt guilty that we were made mute onlookers despite the heart wrenching sight when, from a distance, we could faintly make out the movements of the three caught in the blaze inside the burning vehicle, banging the windscreens for help” whispered Sebati Majhi, an old woman of the village in who was in tears and panic-struck by the horrific scene.

Dara Singh alias Ravindra Pal was known to be a Bajrang Dal activist who worked in that area against cow transportation to other states because cow slaughter was banned in Odisha. Singh, as per the government counsel, often resorted to brutal ways to punish cattle-laden truck drivers.

After committing the crime in Manoharpur, Singh went underground for a month before being arrested.

Singh, the main accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005. The decision of the High Court was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.

Many human right activists expressed their annoyance after the High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment for such an unforgivable crime considered as “rarest of rare”.

He (Dara) promised to “give back to the society” through “service-oriented actions”. He submitted that he had undergone more than the qualified period of sentence of 14 years under the April 19, 2022 remission policy in Odisha.

According to Wikipedia, Dara Singh was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  He was also an activist of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

The police reported that Dara Singh was an active member of the ‘Go Suraksha Samiti’, an initiative financed and implemented by VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

We drove to Balasore 150 km from Bhubaneswar a week after the tragedy to meet Gladys Staines, wife of Graham Staines, who politely received us and was looking completely crest fallen. At times, she appeared numb and would walk inside and come back after washing her face.

The substance of her reaction was “what can I say, and from my side I simply forgive him (the killer)”. The bereaved mother and wife sounded spiritual.

Now that the apex court has sought the view of the Odisha government,  which is “presently under the BJP rule, it seems a bit likely that the person behind of world’s one of most brutal acts in the history of crime, may get a nod for premature release”, Rabi Das, who as a journalist has been working on human rights also, told this reporter.

“Let’s wait. It would be premature at this time to predict the Odisha government’s response to the apex court’s query on the premature release of Dara”, said Aravinda Satpathy, a senior advocate of the High Court of Orissa.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha with over 40 years of experience in the profession.

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post Odisha: Graham Staines’ Brutal Murder; Mystery Hangs Over Dara Singh’s Release appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image courtesy: TOI

Graham Statines Murder Case
On the intervening night between January 22 and 23, 1999, Staines and his two sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6) were sleeping in their station wagon in a wooded area of Manoharpur in the Keonjhar region when they were surrounded by members of the Bajrang Dal. The mob took no pity even on the innocent children and burnt the trio alive! While Dara Singh was the prime accused in the case, Sarangi cannot be absolved of the crime completely, considering he headed the Bajrang Dal in Odisha at the time. Dara Singh was awarded a death sentence by the trial court in 2003 which was commuted to life imprisonment by the Odisha High Court in 2005 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011. National Minorities Commission verified Dara’s linkages to the Bajrang Dal.

Loudest cheers for Sarangi, a sign of things to come?
Sarangi won from the Balasore constituency in Odisha on a BJP ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. On May 30, Sarangi, the social media hero with a murky past was sworn into the Modi 2.0 Cabinet as Minister of State in two ministries: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. It was reported that he received the loudest cheers as he took oath.

Sarangi’s tryst with religious extremism
He has even served as the president of the Odisha Bajrang Dal unit and was previously a senior member of the state Vishwa Hindu Parishad unit. Sarangi has seven pending criminal cases against him with severe charges including criminal intimidation, rioting, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc., and extortion, among others. In March 2002, while serving as the BD president, he was arrested by the Odisha police on charges of rioting, arson, assault and damaging government property.

Shortly after being sworn in he claimed all charges against him were false and motivated. He told NDTV,  “All these (cases) are based on false allegations. The police have done this deliberately because I went against their corruption and taking bribes. I fought against it seriously. I fought against injustice for social causes and that is why I was the enemy of many corrupt officials and that is why all antisocial elements united to file cases against me. Many charges were proved false in court and rest will be dismissed too.”

In the past, while Sarangi has condemned the death of Staines’ children, he held fast to his views against conversion. Sarangi has given several interviews, in which he spoke passionately against what he called the “evil designs” of Christian missionaries who are “bent on converting the whole of India.” Upon being asked how he viewed the work done by Christian missionaries in Odisha, Sarangi said, “Barring a few exceptions, Christian missionaries, to generalise, are idiots.”

Therefore, even as Sarangi is being hailed for his simple life, with some sections calling him the ‘Modi of Odisha’, one cannot forget what lies behind him!

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