Mahendra Hembram (left) and the Graham Stains family
After spending 25 years in jail, Mahendra Hembram, the convict in the cold-blooded murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, was released on Wednesday, April 16, and welcomed with garlands by his supporters chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram.’
Staines and his two young sons – ten-year-old Timothy and six-year-old Philip – were burnt alive in their jeep in Odisha’s Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district, on the night of January 21, 1999. The attack was carried out by a Hindutva group led by Hembram and the main accused Dara Singh, who accused Staines of religious conversion.
Singh is currently serving a life imprisonment.
Hembram, who was 25-year-old at the time of the murder, was arrested on December 9, 1999, while Dara Singh was nabbed on January 31, 2000.
Fifty-one individuals were arrested concerning the Graham Staines murder, of which 37 were acquitted in the initial trial, and one juvenile was released in 2008 following an appeal.
Hembram was released on the grounds of “good behaviour,” based on the recommendations of the Odisha State Sentence Review Board and under the state’s premature release policy.
The main accused, Dara Singh, is currently serving a life imprisonment. Initially, on a death row sentence by a CBI court, Singh’s punishment was reduced to life imprisonment by the Orissa High Court on May 19, 2005.
On March 19 this year, the Supreme Court directed the BJP government to decide on Dara Singh’s plea for premature release. Officials have stated that the matter is under consideration and a final decision is expected in the coming weeks.
Mahendra Hembram’s release is significant to the right-aligned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is also the state government in Odisha. Chief minister Mohan Majhi had strongly campaigned for the release of Dara Singh.
This post was last modified on April 17, 2025 3:33 pm