Could the man who murdered a Christian missionary and his sons walk free in India?

One of India's most shocking incidents of anti-Christian violence is back in the news more than a quarter of a century after it drew condemnation from around the world.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is due to take a call on a petition seeking release from prison by a man, who is convicted of killing Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in 1999.

Dara Singh - whose real name is Rabindra Kumar Pal - has been in jail since his arrest in 2000, serving a life sentence for burning alive the Australian missionary and his six and 10-year-old sons in a village in the eastern state of Odisha (formerly Orissa).

Staines had spent 30 years working with leprosy patients, but Singh and his associates from Hindu hardline groups had accused him of forcibly converting poor Hindus from disadvantaged castes and tribals to Christianity.

The viciousness of the crime sent shockwaves through India's minority Christian community and caused global outrage. Now reports that Singh may be set free have brought alive memories of the heinous crime.

Staines lived in Baripada in Mayurbhanj district, where he worked among the local tribal community.

On the night of their murder on 22 January 1999, Staines and his sons had attended a Christian gathering in Manoharpur, a remote village in the neighbouring district of Keonjhar. They were sleeping in their jeep when a mob of 60 to 70 people led by Singh surrounded their vehicle, set fire to it and prevented them from escaping.

As Singh went on the run after the crime, police put up posters all over the state, offering an 800,000-rupee (approximately $18,000 then) reward for information leading to his capture. Reports at the time said he was helped by villagers and tribals who eulogised him as "a modern-day Tarzan who plays with elephants and rides tigers". He was arrested a year later during an overnight raid on a jungle hideout.

In a sensational interview with the India Today magazine's Ruben Banerjee from prison a few months later, he denied killing Staines and his children but said he "did not like Graham Staines" and had "spearheaded the movement against missionaries".

"Missionaries have been targeting our religion. They have been converting Hindus by deceit and inducements. Our religion is under siege. As a true Hindu, it was my responsibility to oppose them," he said. "Since I was possibly the most famous name in the region, the police implicated me in the killings."

Singh added that he was "prepared to be a martyr for the cause of Hindus" but believed that he would never get convicted.

His optimism was misplaced - in 2003, a trial court sentenced Singh to death and 12 others to life imprisonment. Two years later, the high court commuted his death sentence. It confirmed the life term of his accomplice Mahendra Hembram but freed 11 others, saying there was not enough evidence to support their convictions.

In January 2011, the Supreme Court upheld Singh's life sentence, refusing the prosecutors' plea to reinstate the death penalty.

The Staines murder was not the only crime Singh was guilty of. In 2007, he was convicted for two other heinous crimes he committed against religious minorities in 1999 - the same year he murdered the Australian missionary and his children.

He received life sentences for leading a mob that set fire to a church and killed Catholic priest Arul Das with an arrow as he tried to flee the burning building and, in the second instance, for beating and burning to death a Muslim garment trader Shaikh Rahaman.

Police had registered 10 cases accusing Singh of involvement in hijacking trucks of Muslim traders transporting cows - an animal many Hindus consider sacred - and setting them free. In his interview, Singh denied being "involved personally", saying "my supporters might have done it". But he admitted that he was "actively involved in the movement against illegal trade in cows and cowslaughter" which "had to be stopped at any cost".

Church leaders had alleged the attacks were carried out at the behest of hardline Hindu organisation Bajrang Dal but Singh denied he was a member and an enquiry commission, led by retired top court judge DP Wadhwa, later ruled that he had worked alone.

Graham Staines' widow, Gladys, who stayed on in India with her daughter Esther until July 2004, said she had "forgiven" Dara Singh in the Christian spirit. "Forgiveness opens up the path of healing," she said.

In July 2024, Singh filed a plea for remission in the top court, saying he was entitled to be released because he had spent more than 25 years in prison. He said his conduct had been good in jail and expressed remorse for his actions.

The 62-year-old blamed the crime on "the fervour of youth" in his petition seeking early release.

"The petitioner acknowledges and deeply regrets the transgressions committed more than two decades ago.

"In the fervour of youth, fuelled by impassioned reactions to the brutal history of India, the petitioner's psyche momentarily lost restraint and it is imperative for the court to scrutinise not merely the actions but the underlying intent, noting that there was no personal animosity harboured towards any victim," he wrote.

Last year, the top court asked the state government to take a call on his plea, but the authorities have so far not told the court what they intend to do.

At the last hearing on 19 August, authorities told the court that the Sentence Review Board (SRB), which is examining Singh's plea, was waiting for some more paperwork and sought an adjournment.

The two-judge bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi expressed their annoyance at the several adjournments the state had sought in the case and said if the SRB failed to decide Singh's plea by 2 September, the court would. "You take a decision, whichever way you want. If you do not take a decision, then we will."

Reports that Singh may walk free if the state government or the court accept his remission petition have led to some disquiet in India's 30-million Christian community - some of it because of unease over his earlier statements.

In his 2000 India Today interview, he said he had "no regrets" and "will never regret" killing Staines' children. "When Hindus die, others don't cry. Why should we weep when others die? Whatever has happened is right. Whatever will happen will also be right."

If released from prison, he said, he would "go back to what I have been doing - oppose cow slaughter and conversions".

"The government must stop them. If they are not stopped, more people might get killed. Anything can happen," he added.

In an article on the Union of Catholic News (UCN) website, human rights and Christian political activist John Dayal wrote recently that remission after decades in jail is "not unusual" in India and "the principle behind it - that punishment should allow for reform and eventual return to society - is humane".

But the anxiety among religious minorities in Odisha "is not abstract given the state's history of anti-Christian violence", Dayal points out, citing the Kandhamal riots of 2008, in which dozens were killed and tens of thousands were displaced.

"The Staines murders were not an ordinary homicide but a public, theatrical act of terror, intended to be seen and understood as a warning. The killings of Father Arul Doss and Sheikh Rehman extended that same message," he writes.

"What remains to be seen is not whether Singh will eventually walk free, but how the government conducts itself around that decision...and whether minority communities are given any reassurance," Dayal adds.