The Supreme Court would on Friday pronounce its verdict on CBI's plea for awarding death sentence to Dara Singh,main accused in the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa's Koenjhar district in January 1999. A Bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan had on Decembber 15,2010,reserved its judgement after hearing at length the arguments of CBI's counsel and Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha and counsel for the convicts. Senior counsel K T S Tulsi and Ratnakar Dash,besides counsel Sibo Shankara Mishra,appeared for the 12 convicts. Appearing for CBI,Tankha told the bench that Dara Singh deserves death sentence as the murders were committed in a most "diabolic and dastardly manner" which warrant exemplary punishment. "It was not a simple conspiracy but a dastardly conspiracy in which three innocent hapless victims were beaten and burnt alive in a car," he submitted. Dara had filed an appeal challenging his conviction and the life sentence awarded to him. The appeals were admitted by the apex court in October 2005.
