Bhubaneswar, September 15, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Odisha State Sentence Review Board (SSRB) has once again rejected the premature release plea of life convict Ravindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence in connection with the 1999 killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.
According to an official communication, the SSRB held a special meeting on August 31 under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Hemant Sharma to reconsider Singh’s remission plea in compliance with a Supreme Court direction issued on August 19. Singh is currently lodged in Kendujhar District Jail.
The Board noted that his earlier requests for premature release had been rejected on November 24, 2016; June 24, 2019; December 24, 2020; January 12, 2022; and February 20, 2023. Previous decisions had cited, among other concerns, apprehensions that his release could lead to communal tensions in the region.
The SSRB also considered a conditional recommendation made by Kendujhar district authorities in March 2025 in favour of his release, subject to conditions aimed at maintaining social harmony.
However, the Board noted that district authorities subsequently reported that around 200-250 people associated with the Dara Sena gathered outside Kendujhar District Jail on August 15 in connection with the proposed release. The authorities reportedly said provocative slogans were raised during the gathering. The SSRB observed that the report did not contain a specific recommendation and was therefore inconclusive.
“ In view of all the facts & circumstances, the Board is therefore not inclined to recommend his premature release at this stage,” the SSRB said in its communication.
The decision comes amid ongoing proceedings before the Supreme Court. The apex court had directed the Odisha authorities to reconsider the remission plea and, according to the source material, subsequently pressed the state to take a decision before the next hearing.
Singh has spent more than 26 years in prison. He was convicted in connection with the January 1999 killing of Graham Staines and his two sons at Manoharpur village in Odisha’s Keonjhar district.
A trial court initially sentenced Singh to death. The Orissa High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, holding that the case did not fall within the “rarest of rare” category. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in 2011.
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