NEW DELHI: The Odisha government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that the remission plea of Rabindra Kumar Pal, alias Dara Singh -- serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, has been rejected by the Sentence Review Board.
"The sentence Review board has rejected convict Dara Singh’s premature release plea," Odisha government told the top court's two-judge bench headed by Justice Manoj Misra and also comprising Justice Vijay Bishnoi.
These submissions of the Odisha government came as a huge setback for Singh, who has already served more than 25 years in prison in the case.
Following the submissions, Singh told the top court that he will challenge the Odisha government's order.
Hearing these submissions, the top court granted Singh's lawyer two weeks' time to respond to the Odisha government's decision and listed the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
On September 8, the apex court came down heavily on the Odisha government and the authorities concerned for sitting on the premature release/remission plea of Singh.
Granting the Odisha Sentence Review Board one final opportunity to decide on Singh’s premature release, the court, on September 8, observed that it could not tolerate further avoidance of a decision on the matter.
The apex court bench also expressed its displeasure over the State Sentence Review Board's inaction despite its multiple orders directing the government and authorities to take a decision on Singh's premature release.
"Whatever decision you want to take, take it. Otherwise we will take our own," the bench had told the State.
It may be noted that the state government had submitted that the Directorate of Prisons was awaiting a report from Keonjhar district jail, where Singh is currently lodged, as well as antecedent verification from Uttar Pradesh. The court observed that the decision on remission has to be taken by the Sentence Review Board, not the jail authorities, and that any delay in deciding the matter would violate a prisoner’s rights.
The convict Singh is seeking remission of his sentence and stated that he has served more than 25 years in prison. As per the State's remission policy, remission can be considered for convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment after completion of 25 years of incarceration.
Last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Odisha government to consider and take a decision within six weeks on the remission plea of convict Singh in the case. But no decision has been taken by it, thereby forcing the to court to come down heavily on it.
In his application before the Supreme Court, Singh sought a more liberal remission policy to facilitate his premature release, noting that he had spent more than 24 years and 11 months in prison in Odisha.
In his plea, Singh sought relief from the apex court and said he was willing to “give back to society” through “service-oriented actions”. He urged the court to direct the Odisha government to release him in accordance with the 2022 guidelines for the premature release of life convicts under which he was convicted in three cases.
Singh’s lawyer also sought the impleadment of the CBI as a party to the proceedings, pointing out that the agency had investigated the murder case.
The Bajrang Dal activist and convict, Singh, had on July last year moved the Supreme Court seeking remission on the ground that Rajiv Gandhi's killer have been granted mercy and was released accordingly and thereby he should also be released similarly.
Vishnu Jain, lawyer for Singh, in the plea, sought his release from the jail, citing the judgement that granted mercy to the convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. "I am seeking a direction to be released from jail on this ground," Jain said.
Citing the remission case of, Rajiv Gandhi's one of the killers, A G Perarivalan, who was directed to be released by the apex court in 2022, Singh sought remission.
Narrating the theory of reformative justice, summarised in the words of the eminent jurist and a former Judge of the Supreme Court Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Singh said, "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."
Singh in his plea said that he repented the offences as he was then "overwhelmed by distress at the barbaric deeds inflicted upon India by the Mughals and the British".
He also sought remission and alleged that the state authorities had failed to address several representations sent for his remission and premature release, jeopardising his right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
Justifying that he should be granted remission, as he has already undergone more than the qualified period of jail setence of 14 years and more, as stipulated in the remission policy of April 19, 2022.
"I am around 61 years age. I have never been released on parole," Singh, who originally hailed from Auraiya District in Uttar Pradesh, said in his plea making a watertight case of his remission.
He also stated that when his mother passed away, he could not perform her last rites.
The petitioner, lodged in Keonjhar district jail, said that he acknowledged and deeply regretted the transgressions perpetrated more than two decades ago.
"In the fervour of youth, fueled by impassioned reactions to the brutal history of India, the petitioner's psyche momentarily lost restraint and it is imperative for the court to scrutinise not merely the actions but the underlying intent, noting that there was no personal animosity harboured towards any victim," Singh said in his plea.
Singh said that his actions arose out of the fervent desire to protect the nation rather than stemming from personal malice. He sought a "fair evaluation of the circumstances surrounding those tumultuous times," his plea added.
Citing various judgments involving similar circumstances and gravity of offences, Singh said that the court has granted release of life convicts on the grounds of good conduct inside the jail, the period of incarceration undergone, etc. So he should also be released on these grounds from jail.
Singh, a native of Uttar Pradesh who later settled in Odisha’s Keonjhar district, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, Philip and Timothy. The three were burnt to death while sleeping at a church in Keonjhar during the intervening night of January 22 and 23, 1999.
Singh, the main accused in the triple-murder case, was sentenced to death in 2003. The Orissa High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.