Two acquitted in Staines murder case

The prime culprits, Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram, are serving life sentence.

Bhubaneswar:  A court in Odisha acquitted Ghanashyam Mohanta and Ranjan Mohanta, accused of having participated in the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children in 1999 in Manoharpur village.

A mob of Hindu extremists set fire to the vehicle in which Graham Staines and his sons, 6-year-old Timothy and 10-year-old Philip, were traveling in the night of January 22, 1999. Staines and his family had opened a leper colony and started missionary activities in the districts of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.

The prime culprits, Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram, are serving life sentence.

Ghanashyam and Ranjan were arrested in May last year on the basis of new investigations and witnesses. They were acquitted last Thursday.

The defence lawyer said that the two defendants were acquitted as the prosecution failed to produce conclusive evidence against them and the prosecution witness failed to identify them with certainty.

In 2003, a judge had issued a death sentence to Dara Singh and life imprisonment for the other twelve defendants.

However, in 2005, the High Court commuted the death penalty to Dara Singh to life imprisonment.

The court also confirmed life imprisonment for Hembram and acquitted the other 11 men accused of taking part at the stake. In 2011, the Supreme Court confirmed the judgment.

Gladys Staines had said some years ago that she had forgiven the murderers. She went back to Australia with her daughter after the gruesome murder of her husband and sons.

The murder of Staines has become the symbol of violence committed by radical Hindus against Christians in India.