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Political Notes |
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Staines murder : Death for Dara
A designated CBI court has awarded the death penalty to Dara Singh and life imprisonment to 12 others for their involvement in the killing of the Australian missionary, Graham Stuart Staines, and his two minor sons in Orissa’s Keonjhar district on the night of January 22, 1999. Pronouncing the verdict, District and Sessions Judge Mahendra Nath Patnaik handed out the death sentence to Dara Singh under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code separately, and sentenced the 12 other convicts to life imprisonment under various Sections of the IPC, including Sections 120(B) and 302 (murder and criminal conspiracy).
The death sentence awarded to Dara Singh was subject to confirmation by the High Court under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC), the Judge said, while ordering that the case file be sent to the High Court. The judge had on September 15 held all the 13 accused guilty under Sections 120(B), 148, 435, 436, 302 and 149 of the IPC for offences such as criminal conspiracy, murder, unlawful assembly, rioting, arson, causing damage to property and mischief by setting fire. One accused, Anirudh Dandapat alias Andha Nayak, was acquitted for want of evidence.
The 12 persons who were awarded life term are Dipu Das, Suratha Nayak, Mahendra Hembram, Renta Hembram, Harish Mahanta, Kartik Lohar, Mahadev Mahanta, Thoram Ho, Daya Patra, Ojen Hansda, Rabi Soren and Umakanta Bhoi. All the convicts were present in the court when the judge read out his order into a microphone.
Interestingly, many of the convicts, except Dara Singh, wore white Kurtas with ‘Shiv Sena’ and the tiger face embroidered on them. While the courtroom was crowded with lawyers and mediapersons, thousands of people waited outside the court to have a glimpse of Dara Singh. Over 300 securitymen were deployed in and around the court.
Earlier the judge heard submissions by counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation as well as the defence counsel on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the 13 convicts.
The CBI counsel urged the court to award stringent punishment to the 13 convicts saying they had killed Graham Staines and his two sons without provocation. Citing several Supreme Court judgments which upheld the trial court verdict awarding capital punishment to the accused, counsel argued that it was a fit case for awarding the extreme penalty. Counsel for the convicts, prayed leniency for the 13 persons as most of them were tribals and the sole bread-winners of their families.
After the pronouncement of the verdict, Dara Singh said he did not want to challenge the order in the High Court. Graham Staines and his sons, Phillip (11) and Timothy (7), were burnt to death when they were asleep inside their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar after attending a jungle camp, an annual gathering of Christians of the area for fellowship and teaching.
The trial, which started on March 1, 2001, had come to an end on August 18 this year. A total of 55 prosecution witnesses were examined in the case, followed by 25 defence witnesses. The CBI had charge-sheeted Dara Singh and 17 others submitting that there was enough evidence on record to show the involvement of the accused.
Oil PSUs sale: Jagran Manch agrees with court verdict
The recent Supreme Court order barring the divestment in the oil majors, BPCL and HPCL, has found favour with the saffron outfits which had been agitating against reforms process and disinvestments in profitable public sector units. The RSS-affiliated Swadesh Jagran Manch (SJM) has made it clear that it is completely opposed to the sale of oil majors HPCL and BPCL and does not favour by-passing Parliament. This came on a day when the two Aruns in the Union cabinet-Arun Shourie and Arun Jaitley— met to discuss the options before the government on how to tackle the Supreme Court’s decision not to allow the sale of the two companies without parliamentary approval.
The SJM even issued a veiled threat to the BJP about over-stepping the Sangh line. ‘’I don’t think the Prime Minister will allow the privatisation of HPCL and BPCL. If it happens, there could be negative consequences,’’ SJM convener Murlidhar Rao said . In an earlier meeting with the government, the Sangh outfits working in various socio-political spheres had pointed out that the BJP-led government could count on their organisations’ effective participation in electioneering only if it toes the Sangh ideology on various issues.
In an election year, the Sangh does not want to be seen pushing the privatisation process without political consensus. Hence, Rao asserted that the Sangh wants parliamentary approval for the process at large. Since the Sangh is one with the government on the ideology of privatisation, it is only demanding the creation of enough goodwill and trust for privatisation to be done smoothly. If this is done, it would not lead to allegations of ‘’sale of national wealth without taking Parliament into confidence’’.
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