Dara Remains Sole Surviving Convict In Jail
Australian missionary Graham Staines with his family
Bhubaneswar: An Odisha court acquitted Wednesday 52-year-old Budhadeb Naik, the last accused facing trial in the 1999 killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, leaving former Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh as the sole surviving convict serving a life term 27 years after the crime.The prosecution alleged Naik, a native of Mayurbhanj district, was part of a mob led by Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh that attacked Staines and his sons. CBI arrested Naik in Sept 2019 after he allegedly remained untraced for nearly two decades.Defence lawyer Bana Mohanty said Naik had been falsely charged and was neither involved in the killings nor absconding. “The court of additional district judge-IV in Bhubaneswar was convinced by the evidence presented by the defence and acquitted Naik,” Mohanty said.A prosecution lawyer said the state would study the judgement before deciding whether to challenge the acquittal. “We will examine the judgement and take an appropriate decision thereafter,” he said.Staines, 58, who worked among leprosy patients and tribal communities in Odisha, was sleeping with sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6, inside a station wagon near a church in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district when a mob surrounded the vehicle and set it ablaze on the night of Jan 22, 1999. The killings triggered outrage across India and abroad.Naik’s acquittal follows Odisha govt’s decision on Aug 31 to reject a remission plea by Dara Singh, 62, who is serving a life sentence in Keonjhar district jail.On Sept 22, 2003, a designated CBI court in Bhubaneswar sentenced Dara to death and 12 others to life imprisonment. Orissa HC later acquitted 11 co-accused while upholding convictions of Dara and Mahendra Hembram.On May 19, 2005, HC commuted Dara’s death sentence to life imprisonment and retained Hembram’s life term. Hembram, 63, was released prematurely on April 16, 2025.Dara approached the Supreme Court in 2024 seeking directions to Odisha govt to consider his plea for premature release. Naik’s acquittal leaves Dara as the main convict still serving a life term in the case after Hembram’s release last year.