No bail for Dara Singh

By Our Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR, MAY 8. A local court today rejected the bail plea of Dara Singh, prime accused in the case pertaining to the killing of the Australian missionary, Graham Stuart Staines, and his two sons at Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district in January, 1999.

The District and Sessions Judge of Khurda, Mr. Mahendra Nath Patnaik, rejected the bail petition on the ground that if released on bail, the accused may tamper with the evidence and influence other witnesses in the case.

In the petition filed through his counsel, Mr. Bana Bihari Mohanty, the accused submitted that he be granted bail since Umakanta Bhoi, another accused who is also facing trial in the case, had been granted bail by a Keonjhar court last year.

Meanwhile, another prosecution witness told the court that two months after the incident, Dara Singh had confessed before him that he, along with his other associates, had burnt the Australian missionary and his two sons alive by putting dry straw on the vehicle in which they were sleeping and setting the same afire.

The witness, Narendra Nayak, a resident of Telnadi Sahi village in Mayurbhanj district, said that when Dara reached his paddy fields he had his head tonsured and beard clean shaven. When asked about his sporting a new look, Dara Singh said that he had tonsured his head after the murder of Staines and his sons. Dara Singh stayed in the thatched hut made near his paddy field, Nayak said.Replying to another query from the prosecution counsel, Mr. Nayak, who said that he used to know Dara Singh since long, submitted that the same evening police raided the paddy fields but Dara Singh managed to flee by crossing the Tel river nearby. Mr. Nayak said he had also started running, but police did not arrest him.

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