Graham Staines murder convict released after 25 years in jail on grounds of ‘good behaviour’

One of the men convicted for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in 1999 was on Wednesday released from a jail in Odisha on grounds of “good behaviour”, The Hindu reported.

Mahendra Hembram was released from Odisha’s Keonjhar jail after having been imprisoned for 25 years. The 50-year-old was garlanded on his release, with supporters shouting slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”.

Hembram was quoted by PTI as saying on his release: “I spent 25 years in jail after being falsely implicated in an incident related to religious conversion. Today, I have been released.”

Staines and his sons were burnt to death by a mob led by Bajrang Dal member Dara Singh in Odisha on January 22, 1999 when they were sleeping in a jeep. The attackers had accused the missionary of illegal religious conversion. The murders had sparked national and international condemnation.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court had in 2003 convicted 14 persons, including Singh and Hembram, for Staines’ murder. Singh was sentenced to death by the CBI court, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2005 by the Orissa High Court.

The High Court also acquitted 11 others from the case. Another person accused in the case who was a minor at the time of the murders was released in 2008.

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