Staines killer’s death sentence commuted to life imprisonment

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Thursday set aside the death sentence of Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh and commuted it to life imprisonment in the triple murder case of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons.

Delivering the judgment in a packed court room, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Sujit Barman Roy and Justice Laxmikanta Mohapatra acquitted 11 others while maintaining the life imprisonment of Mahendra Hembrum.

“The prosecution (the CBI) has not proved beyond reasonable doubt so far as their identification is concerned. Their (the appellants') conviction and sentences by the trial court cannot be sustained,” the Bench observed in a 110-page judgment.

Those who were acquitted include Dayanidhi Patra, Umakanta Bhoi, Kartik Lohar, Rabi Soren, Mahadeb Mahanta, Thuram Ho, Renta Hembrum, Suresh Hansda, Surath Naik, Harischandra Mahanta and Rajat Kumar Das.

The trial court had awarded capital punishment to Dara Singh while sentencing the 12 others to life imprisonment on Sept 22, 2003.

“Evidence against the accused, including Dara Singh, being of identical nature, they are all equally responsible for the triple murder. No justification is available from the evidence on record to single out Dara Singh for convicting him under Section 302 of the IPC,” the court observed.

“There is absolutely no evidence on record that due to an individual act of Dara alone, the three deceased persons or any of them died. No particular fatal injuries to any of the deceased has been attributed to Dara Singh.

Therefore, Dara Singh cannot be held individually liable for the triple murder, but he can be liable vicariously along with others by invoking Section 149 of IPC,” the bench observed.

With regard the conspiracy charge, the court said, “We are sorry to say that the nature of evidence is absolutely weak and on the basis of such speculative evidence, it is not possible to hold any of the accused guilty for criminal conspiracy under Section 120 (B) of the IPC. Therefore, the conviction and sentences of the appellants under Section 120 (B) cannot be sustained and must be quashed.”

Indicating various shortcomings in the investigation with regard to the identification of the miscreants and the procurement of confessional statements, the court observed, “We cannot accept the investigation to be an impartial one.”

In a virtual stricture to the Central investigating agency, the court observed, “There are circumstances to show that the confessional statements of Umakanta Bhoi must have been secured by coercion, duress and threat.”

The court also took exception to the manner in which the test identification (TI) parade was conducted by the CBI. One of the CBI officers who is also a prosecution witness admitted in his evidence that he had shown the photograph of Bhoi to one Mathai Marandi seven days before the TI parade.