NEW DELHI: Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh, serving life imprisonment in the brutal murder of Australian Christian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking remission on the ground that Rajiv Gandhi’s killer have been granted mercy and was released from prison.A two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice S V N Bhatti issued notice to Odisha govt and asked it to file a detailed reply on Singh’s prayers and fixed the matter for further hearing after six weeks.Advocate Vishnu Jain, appearing for Singh, cited the judgement that granted mercy to the convict in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, A G Perarivalan, and said, “I am seeking a direction to be released from jail on this ground.”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 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 Constitution.Singh also pointed out that he has already undergone more than the qualified period of jail sentence of 14 years, as stipulated in the remission policy of April 19, 2022.”I am around 60 years of age. I have never been released on parole,” Singh, who originally hailed from Auraiya District in Uttar Pradesh, said in his plea. 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 brutal murder that he committed more than two decades ago.”In the fervor 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 scrutinize not merely the actions but the underlying intent, noting that there was no personal animosity harbored towards any victim,” Singh in his plea said.A mob led by Singh attacked Graham Staines and his two sons – 11-year-old Philip and 8-year-old Timothy – while they slept in their station wagon and then set the vehicle on fire in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999.Staines and his wife Gladys worked with Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and cared for leprosy patients.Dara Singh, the main accused in the triple murder, was convicted and sentenced to death by a CBI court in 2003.The Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005 and it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011.Mehendra Hembram, an accomplice of Dara Singh, is also serving life imprisonment in the case, while 11 other accused were acquitted by the high court due to lack of evidence.Singh in his plea 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, he 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.
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