The Supreme Court on Wednesday (August 19, 2018) criticised the Odisha government for delaying a decision on the remission plea filed by Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence in the triple murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in January 1999.
A Bench headed by Justice Manoj Misra cautioned the State government that procrastination would only lead to the Supreme Court taking over and deciding the life convict’s remission petition. The State was yet to decide. “The matter was adjourned for the Sentence Review Board to take a decision. We are yet to be informed about the decision of the Sentence Review Committee,” the court noted. He has been in custody ever since.
Singh has sought remission on the ground that the Odisha Remission Rules allow it after serving 25 years of the sentence. He said he had already served 26 years. Singh had filed his remission petition in 2024. Singh was arrested in January 2000 after a year-long manhunt. He was sentenced to death by the trial court in 2003. In 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2011.
The Supreme Court Bench orally said it would give the State a final opportunity to take a call on the remission plea. Today, the counsel for the State has placed before us a letter of the prison authorities wherein they say certain documents crucial to taking the decision are yet to be received.
