- (1.) These appeals relate to a sensational case of triple murder of an Australian Christian Missionary - Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, namely, Philip Staines, aged about 10 years and Timothy Staines aged about 6 years.
(2.) Criminal Appeal No. 1366 of 2005 is filed by Rabindra Kumar Pal @ Dara Singh against the final judgment and order dated 19.05.2005 passed by the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack in Criminal Appeal No. 239 of 2003 whereby the High Court dismissed the appeal of the appellant upholding the conviction and commuting the death sentence passed by the trial Court into that of life imprisonment. Against the same judgment, Criminal Appeal No. 1259 of 2007 is filed by Mahendra Hembram challenging his life imprisonment awarded by the trial Court and confirmed by the High Court. Against the acquittal of rest of the accused by the High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (in short "the CBI") filed Criminal Appeal Nos. 1357-1365 of 2005. Since all the appeals arose from the common judgment of the High Court and relating to the very same incident that took place in the midnight of 22.01.1999/23.01.1999, they are being disposed of by this judgment.
(3.) The case of the prosecution is as under: (a) Graham Stuart Staines, a Christian Missionary from Australia, was working among the tribal people especially lepers of the State of Orissa. His two minor sons, namely, Philip Staines and Timothy Staines were burnt to death along with their father in the midnight of 22.01.1999/23.01.1999. The deceased-Graham Staines was engaged in propagating and preaching Christianity in the tribal area of interior Orissa. Manoharpur is a remote tribal village under the Anandapur Police Station of the District Keonjhar of Orissa. Every year, soon after the Makar Sankranti, the said missionary used to come to the village to conduct the Jungle Camp. Accordingly, on 20.01.1999, the deceased-Staines, along with his two minor sons Philip and Timothy and several other persons came to the village Manoharpur. They conducted the camp for next two days by hosting a series of programmes. (b) On 22.01.1999, the Missionary Team, as usual conducted different programmes in the village near the Church and retired for the day. Graham Staines and his two minor sons slept in their vehicle parked outside the Church. In the mid- night, a mob of 60-70 people came to the spot and set fire to the vehicle in which the deceased persons were sleeping. The mob prevented the deceased to get themselves out of the vehicle as a result of which all the three persons got burnt in the vehicle. The local police was informed about the incident on the next day. (c) Since the local police was not able to proceed with the investigation satisfactorily, on 23.04.1999, the same was handed over to the State Crime Branch. Even the Crime Branch failed to conduct the investigation, ultimately, the investigation was transferred to CBI. (d) On 03.05.1999, the investigation was taken over by the CBI. After thorough investigation, charge sheet was filed by the CBI on 22.06.1999. On the basis of charge sheet, as many as 14 accused persons were put to trial. Apart from these accused, one minor was tried by Juvenile Court. (e) The prosecution examined as many as 55 witnesses whereas in defence 25 witnesses were examined. Series of documents were exhibited by the prosecution. By a common judgment and order dated 15.09.2003 and 22.09.2003, Sessions Judge, Khurda convicted all the accused and sentenced them for offences punishable under various sections. The death sentence was passed against Dara Singh- appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 1366 of 2005 and others were awarded sentence of life imprisonment. (f) The death reference and the appeals filed by the convicted persons were heard together by the High Court and were disposed of by common judgment dated 19.05.2005 concluding that the witnesses are not trustworthy and no credence should be given to their statements and confessional statements were procured by the investigating agency under threat and coercion. The High Court, by the impugned judgment, modified the death sentence awarded to Dara Singh into life imprisonment and confirmed the life imprisonment imposed on Mahendra Hembram and acquitted all the other accused persons. Questioning the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment, Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram filed Criminal Appeal Nos. 1366 of 2005 and 1259 of 2007 respectively and against the acquittal of rest of the accused, CBI filed Criminal Appeal Nos. 1357-65 of 2005 before this Court.;