BHUBANESWAR: The State Sentence Review Board (SSRB)’s recommendations on the remission plea of 56 life convicts is under consideration of the Odisha government.
Sources said, the plea of Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, currently serving life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, also features among the 56, whose cases were taken up for premature release by the SSRB in its July 6 meeting.
Out of the total convicts, official sources said, the board deliberated upon the remission plea of Singh and sent the proposal to the state government for its approval. Last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Odisha government to take a decision on Singh’s remission plea and apprise it.
Singh, in his application filed before the apex court had sought more liberal remission policy to ensure his premature release from Odisha jail, where he is lodged for more than 25 years.
In April 2025, Mahendra Hembram, an aide of Singh and co-convict in the brutal killing of Staines and his two sons, had secured early release from prison basing on his good conduct.
Singh, the prime accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003. The Orissa High Court, however, commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005 which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.
On January 31, 2000, Singh was apprehended by the then Mayurbhanj SP YB Khurania, now the state DGP, for the chilling murders of the Staines in Manoharpur. A total of 14 people, including Singh and Hembram, were accused in the gruesome case. However, 12 of them were later acquitted.
