The Supreme Court India bowed to pressure from the Christian community and on Tuesday changed the reasons for awarding a life sentence to Dara Singh, a Hindu vigilante convicted of killing Australian christian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in 1999.

Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram, convicted for burning alive the Australian missionary and his two minor sons as revenge for forced conversion in January 1999, had on January 21 escaped death penalty with the Supreme Court ruling that the crime was not “rarest of rare” and upheld the life sentence awarded to the duo by the Orissa high court.

A bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan, which had given the verdict in the Staines case , replaced the original remarks in two different paragraphs with new sentences. 

The original paras in this context had read:

1 – “In the case on hand, though Graham Staines and his two minor sons were burnt to death while they were sleeping inside a station wagon at Manoharpur, the intention was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely, converting poor tribals to Christianity.”

2 – “It is undisputed that there is no justification for interfering in someone’s belief by way of use of force, provocation, conversion, incitement or upon a flawed premise that one religion is better than the other.”

These were replaced with:

1 – “However, more than 12 years have elapsed since the act was committed, we are of the opinion that the life sentence awarded by the high court need not be enhanced in view of the factual position discussed in the earlier paras.”

2 – The other replaced para read, “There is no justification for interfering in someone’s religious belief by any means.”

The court’s rare action of expunging its own remarks, which it called a clarification, came in the wake of criticism in the media and by Christian organisations against reference to conversion. Rewriting part of a judgment is unusual for the apex court.

This changing of reasons for the judgement by the Supreme Court under pressure is unprecedented and looks like a glimpse of the power wielded by so-called ‘helpless minorities’ ( >325 million) who control the Government,underworld etc. and now seemingly the courts also.

HISTORY:

Dara Singh ( Ravinder Kumar Pal), the son of Mihilal Pal of Kokara, Itawah, Uttar Pradesh, lived in Delhi before coming to Baliposhi, Orissa, in 1989. It has been alleged that over time he became associated with Bajrang Dal and launched a campaign against cow slaughter and religious conversions. He was charged in several cases where trucks carrying cows to slaughter had been hijacked. By redistributing these cows among the locals, he had achieved a degree of popularity among the tribals, and was being hero-worshipped.

Singh was also charged in the killing of Muslim trader Shaikh Rehman at Padibeda village in Karanjia sub-division of Mayurbhanj district.[2] and in the murder of a Christian cleric, Arul Doss, in Jamboni village in the same district. Doss was killed by an arrow as he was escaping after his church was set on fire.

Subsequent to his arrest, his supporters have formed several organisations, including Dara Singh Parijan Suraksha Samiti (Council for Aiding the Family of Dara Singh), Dharmarakhyak Sri Dara Singh Bachao Samiti (Committee to defend Dara Singh, the Protector of our Religion), Dharmarakshak Dara Singh Sahayta Samiti, Dara Sena (Dara’s Army), claiming to espouse his cause. These groups describe him as the saviour of Hinduism. There was also a “Free Dara Singh” website, which is now closed. Several small booklets with titles like Mono Ku Chhui Gola (He Has Touched Our Hearts), or Mu Dara Singh Kahuchi (This is Dara Singh Speaking), eulogizing Dara and criticizing the activities of Staines and other Christian missionaries, are circulating in the region.

Sources: Times of India , DNA , Wikipedia.

Popularity: 4% [?]