Apex
court modifies Graham Staines murder verdict
Tuesday January 25, 2011 08:20:10 PM,
IANS
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Apex
court upholds life for Graham Staines' killer
The Supreme
Court Friday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to Dara Singh
alias Ravinder Kumar Pal for leading a mob that burnt to death
Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa in January 1999.
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New Delhi: Stung by
widespread criticism, the Supreme Court Tuesday expunged the
portion of its judgment which said that Australian missionary
Graham Staines was killed in Orissa in 1999 by Hindu bigot Dara
Singh and his accomplice in order to teach him a lesson for
converting tribals into Christians.
The court expunged the portion of its judgment delivered Jan 21 on
its own initiative.
The apex court bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S.
Chauhan said that it was deleting some portion of its judgment and
substituting the same with other formulations.
Speaking for the bench, Justice Sathasivam deleted the portion
that read: "In the case on hand, though Graham Staines and his two
minor sons were burnt to death while they were sleeping inside a
station wagon at Manoharpur, the intention was to teach a lesson
to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely,
converting poor tribals to Christianity. All these aspects have
been correctly appreciated by the high court and modified the
sentence of death into life imprisonment with which we concur."
This paragraph was substituted by the sentence: "However, more
than 12 years have elapsed since the act was committed, we are of
the opinion that the life sentence awarded by the high court need
not be enhanced in view of the factual position discussed in the
earlier paras."
The court also expunged the portion of a sentence that read: "It
is undisputed that there is no justification for interfering in
someone's belief by way of 'use of force', provocation, conversion
and incitement or upon a flawed premise that one religion is
better than the other."
A portion of this sentence was deleted and replaced by the
sentence: "There is no justification for interfering in someone's
religious belief by any means."
Staines and his two minor sons Philip (10) and Timothy (6) were
burnt to death while they were sleeping in a station wagon at
Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district Jan 22, 1999.
Ravinder Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh was awarded death sentence by
the special Central Bureau of Investigation court. The sentence
was commuted to life imprisonment by the Orissa High Court. The
high court also confirmed the life imprisonment awarded to his
co-convict Mahender Hambram by the trial court.
The apex court upheld the high court verdict in its Jan 21
judgment.
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