By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: When CM Mohan Charan Majhi was in Opposition, He sat on a Dharna Demanding Dara Singh’s Release.
Today, as CM, his government rejected the plea, citing concerns over 200–250 people gathering outside the jail demanding his release.What a double standard to fool Hindus!
The State Sentence Review Board said Singh’s premature-release plea had previously been rejected several times — in November 2016, June 2019, December 2020, January 2022 and February 2023.
Sitting CM Majhi had supported Sudarshan TV’s editor Suresh Chavhanke to demand the release of Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh, who was convicted for the 1999 murder of Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two children.
In September 2022, Chavhanke was denied permission to meet Singh in Keonjhar jail, following which the Sudarshan TV editor and BJP leaders who had accompanied him, including Majhi, staged a dharna to press the jail authorities.
After Keonjhar jail authorities said that Singh will only be allowed to meet his family members and lawyers in 2022, Chavhanke, Majhi and other BJP leaders demonstrated against the decision. Majhi, who was BJP’s chief whip in 2022, told to media that “…this is just a demand. If the situation warrants, we would discuss in the party to back him (Singh).”
CM Mohan Charan Majhi’s background in the Sangh parivar and visibility during the last assembly term is said to have influenced the central leadership’s decision to choose him as the chief minister over other senior BJP leaders in the state.
The Odisha government has rejected the plea of convict Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh for premature release from jail. He is serving a life sentence for the 1999 killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons who were burnt alive while sleeping in a vehicle in Manoharpur in Keonjhar district.
The State Sentence Review Board, which met on August 31, said it was “not inclined to recommend his (Dara Singh’s) premature release at this stage”.
On August 19, the Supreme Court had asked the Board to take a decision on his plea for premature release. On September 8, the bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi, questioning the delay over a decision, said it cannot be kept “lingering”.
Dara Singh, a native of Uttar Pradesh who had settled in Keonjhar, was identified as the main accused in the triple-murder case. A Special CBI Court and the District and Sessions Judge Court in Bhubaneswar sentenced Singh to death in 2003.
The Orissa High Court subsequently commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in 2005. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence in 2011.
Singh, now 67, has been in prison for more than two decades and had sought premature release, arguing that he had already completed the qualifying period for release.
