The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Odisha government on a plea for “more liberal policy of remission” by Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Keonjhar in 1999.
A three-judge bench presided by CJI D Y Chandrachud asked the state to file its response in two weeks. The bench also comprised Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
Another bench of the court had also issued a notice to the state government on July 9 on a similar plea by Singh.
The fresh plea prayed that a more liberal policy of remission should be applied.
Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain who appeared for Singh said he (Singh) had already spent 24 years and 6 months in prison.
In his earlier plea, Singh said he “acknowledges and deeply regrets the transgressions perpetrated more than two decades ago”. It added, “in the fervour of youth, fuelled by impassioned reactions to the brutal history of India, the petitioner’s psyche momentarily lost restraint”.
Currently 61, Singh said he “has never been released on parole and even when his mother passed away, he could not perform her last rites…”
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Singh said he “has already undergone more than the qualified period i.e. 14 years of sentence as stipulated in policy dated April 19, 2022” and “has served more than 24 years of actual imprisonment”.
He said he harboured “no personal animosity towards any victim” and urged the court “to scrutinise not merely the actions but the underlying intent”.