The Supreme Court has directed the Odisha government to decide the remission plea of Ravindra Pal, also known as Dara Singh, within one month. Singh is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons.
A Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi heard the matter on Tuesday. The Odisha government informed the court that the State Sentence Review Board is examining Singh’s request. However, some records from Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh are still pending. The Supreme Court has now listed the case for hearing on August 19, 2026, and expects the state to take a final decision before then.
Dara Singh has spent around 26 years in Keonjhar jail. In his remission plea, he claimed he has repented for his actions and requested early release after serving more than two decades in prison.
The case dates back to January 22, 1999, when missionary Graham Staines and his sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), were burnt alive inside a station wagon at Manoharpur in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. The incident shocked the nation and drew global attention.
A CBI court sentenced Dara Singh to death in 2003. The Orissa High Court later commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, and the Supreme Court upheld that decision in 2011.
In April 2025, another convict in the case, Mahendra Hembram, was released after completing 25 years in prison on the grounds of good behaviour.