SC dismisses Dara Singh's bail plea

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh, who is serving a life term for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two teenaged sons in January 1999.

Justice Arijit Pasayat dismissed Singh's bail plea saying that he was serving a life sentence in another murder case as well and granting him bail in one would not serve his purpose.

Singh had approached the apex court for bail to visit his seriously ailing mother.

He is presently undergoing the life sentence in Baripada Circle Jail in Orissa for burning to death Staines and his two minor sons, Philip and Timothy.

A group of villagers had torched the vehicle in which Staines and his sons were sleeping late in the night outside a church at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district on Jan 22, 1999.

A trial court in 2003 had sentenced Singh to death for his role in the killing, but the Orissa High Court later commuted it to life imprisonment.

On Sep 22, the Baripada trial court convicted Singh for the murder of another priest. He was sentenced to life imprisonment along with three others for the 1999 murder of 35-year-old Catholic priest Arul Doss in Jamabani village in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district. Doss was attacked and chased while attending a function and struck down by arrows.