Convict in Graham Staines Murder Case Released

KEONJHAR, Odisha, April 17, 2025: Mahendra Hembram, one of the convicts in the 1999 triple murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, was released from Keonjhar jail in Odisha on Wednesday after serving 25 years. His release was granted on grounds of good behaviour, following a decision by the Odisha State Sentence Review Board.

Now 50 years old, Hembram was convicted on September 22, 2003, along with Bajrang Dal leader Dara Singh and 10 others, for the brutal killing of Staines and his sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6). On the night of January 21, 1999, the trio were attacked with axes by a mob led by Singh and Hembram while they were asleep in their station wagon in Manoharpur, Odisha. The mob later set the vehicle on fire and prevented the victims from escaping.

Graham Staines and his wife, Gladys, were associated with the Mayurbhanj Evangelical Missionary organisation and were well-known for their work with leprosy patients in Odisha.

Confirming the release, Jailer Manaswini Naik stated, “Hembram has been released following a decision by the State Sentence Review Board. He was freed after completing 25 years of his sentence and maintaining good behaviour, in accordance with the rules.”

The jail authorities gave Hembram a cordial farewell, garlanding him in recognition of his good conduct during incarceration. He was also handed a passbook of a bank account containing his earnings from various work assignments he had done while in prison.

Speaking to reporters after his release, Hembram claimed that he had spent 25 years in jail after being falsely implicated in what he described as "an incident related to religious conversion".

A native of Manoharpur village, Hembram was arrested in 1999, while Dara Singh was apprehended a year later by Y.B. Khurania, the then Superintendent of Police of Mayurbhanj district. Initially lodged as an undertrial at Jharpada Jail in Bhubaneswar, Hembram briefly claimed sole responsibility for the murders during his trial in a CBI court in Khurda—a statement he later retracted. The court, however, found substantial evidence implicating both him and Singh, including eyewitness testimony identifying Singh as the person who set Staines' vehicle ablaze.

The trial concluded on August 18, 2003, with Judge Mahendra Patnaik convicting Dara Singh and 12 others. One of the 14 accused persons, Anirudha Dandapat, was acquitted due to lack of evidence. On September 22, 2003, Dara Singh was sentenced to death, while Hembram and 11 others received life imprisonment.

In 2005, the Orissa High Court commuted Singh’s death sentence to life imprisonment—a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court. Singh remained incarcerated and had filed mercy petitions with both the Supreme Court and the President of India. In March 2025, the Supreme Court directed the Odisha government to consider his plea for sentence remission.

The murder of Graham Staines and his sons had sparked international outrage and remains one of the most shocking instances of communal violence in the history of independent India.

Source: New Indian Express

Image Credit: Maktoob Media