Mahendra Hembram, one of the convicts in the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, was released from Odisha’s Keonjhar jail on Wednesday after spending 25 years in jail.
Officials said the release was granted on the grounds of “good behaviour,” based on the recommendations of the Odisha State Sentence Review Board and in accordance with the state’s premature release policy.
Now 51, Hembram was convicted for his role in the horrifying attack that took place on the night of January 21, 1999, when a Hindu right-wing mob torched a jeep in which Staines and his sons — Timothy (6) and Philip (10) — were sleeping in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district.
The three were burned alive, a crime that drew global outrage and became a grim symbol of Hindutva violence in India.
At the time of the crime, Hembram was 25 years old and part of the group that carried out the deadly assault.
Upon his release, he was garlanded by supporters, who raised Hindutva slogans of “Jai Shri Ram.”
Hembram had been arrested on December 9, 1999, while Dara Singh, the prime accused in the case, was nabbed on January 31, 2000, from a forest hideout. Singh was initially sentenced to death by a CBI court in Bhubaneswar on September 22, 2003, while Hembram and 11 others were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Orissa High Court later commuted Singh’s death sentence to life imprisonment on May 19, 2005, and acquitted 11 of the 14 convicts. Hembram’s conviction was upheld.
In total, 51 individuals were arrested in connection with the Staines murder case between 1999 and 2000. Thirty-seven were acquitted in the initial trial, and one juvenile was released in 2008 following an appeal.
The release of Hembram comes at a politically charged moment in Odisha. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had earlier supported a campaign for the release of Dara Singh, returned to power in the state last year after defeating its former ally, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), in the assembly elections. Mohan Majhi, now the Chief Minister and formerly the Keonjhar MLA, had publicly backed the demand for Singh’s release.
On March 19 this year, the Supreme Court directed the Odisha Government to take a decision regarding Dara Singh’s plea for premature release. Officials have stated that the matter is under consideration and a final decision is expected in the coming weeks.
Alongside Hembram, 30 other convicts from various prisons in Odisha were also released on similar grounds.
