One of the Hindu extremists sentenced to life in prison for burning Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons to death in India 25 years ago was given a hero’s welcome after he was released on April 16.
Mahendra Hembram walked out of Keonjhar jail last week, freed by the Odisha State Sentence Review Board for “good behavior.” Hembram, 50, emerged from prison to supporters who garlanded him and chanted the Hindu slogan, “Jai Shri Ram [Hail lord Rama].”
“The way Hembram was welcomed with garlands and taken on a celebration procession by a crowd shouting Hindu slogans was a shocking sight for anybody believing in peace and tranquillity of a society,” Ajay Singh, a Catholic priest and a human rights activist in Odisha, told Morning Star News.
John Dayal, spokesperson for the United Christian Forum, was equally shocked.
“The obscene welcome accorded to the convict on his release was to be seen to be believed, and totally exposes the politics of the release,” Dayal told Morning Star News.
Hembram immediately proclaimed his innocence, though in 2002 he once declared himself the sole culprit for the murders, according to court records.
After his release from the prison some 200 kilometers from Bhubaneshwar, capital of Odisha state, Hembram told reporters, “I spent 25 years in jail after being falsely implicated in an incident related to religious conversion. Today, I have been released.”
Jailer Manaswini Naik explained the legal basis for release.
“Hembram has been released following a decision by the State Sentence Review Board. The prison directorate informed about it in a letter on Tuesday [April 15]. He has been released after 25 years because of good behavior in accordance with the rules.”
The release reopened wounds from one of India’s most shocking hate crimes and turned attention to the pending remission plea of Dara Singh, the main perpetrator who remains imprisoned in the same facility.
Crime that Shocked the World
Staines, then 58, and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6, were burned alive while sleeping in their station wagon outside a church building in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar District, on Jan. 22, 1999. The Australian missionary had worked with leprosy patients in Baripada since arriving in India in 1965.
A Hindu mob targeted Staines for allegedly backing religious conversions, according to a retired police officer stationed in Keonjhar that night.
“Accusing Staines of promoting conversion, Hembram allegedly assaulted him and his two children,” the officer reportedly recalled. “The mob was being led by Dara and Hembram, who were raising slogans against Staines. Staines was pleading mercy. Hembram and Dara forced the foreigner and his two children inside their van and set it on fire by pouring kerosene.”
Witnesses reported the victims had spread straw over their vehicle for warmth. When they tried to escape the flames, the mob, armed with lathis (long wooden poles), prevented them from exiting, leading to their deaths. Their skeletal remains were later recovered.
Then-President K.R. Narayanan condemned the murders, calling them part of “the world’s inventory of black deeds.”
Investigation and Convictions
The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested 51 people in connection with the crime between 1999 and 2000. Hembram was captured Dec. 9, 1999, while Singh evaded authorities until Jan. 31, 2000, when then-Mayurbhanj Superintendent of Police (SP) Y.B. Khurania, now Odisha’s director general of police, arrested him in a forest.
Within three years, 37 suspects were acquitted.
During the trial, Hembram displayed erratic behavior. On Feb. 1, 2002, he “lost mental composure and declared himself the sole culprit and claimed that others were innocent,” according to court records.
Evidence against Singh mounted when suspect Dayanidhi Patra testified that he witnessed him setting fire to the vehicle.
On Sept. 22, 2003, a designated CBI court in Bhubaneswar sentenced Singh to death and 12 others, including Hembram, to life imprisonment. One juvenile was tried separately.
The Orissa High Court later acquitted 11 convicts but upheld the sentences for Singh and Hembram. In 2005, however, it commuted Singh’s death sentence to life imprisonment, a decision the Supreme Court upheld in 2011. The juvenile was released in 2008 following an appeal.
“Though the Christian community in India had not opposed the remission of the death penalty imposed on Dara Singh and his co-conspirators then, we did expect that the guilty murderers would remain in jail for life,” Dayal said.
Supreme Court Controversy
In January 2011, when the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence, a two-judge bench consisting of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan made controversial observations that later sparked widespread debate.
The court initially stated the intention behind the murders was “to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely converting poor tribals to Christianity.”
Civil society organizations condemned these remarks as unwarranted. In a rare move, the same Supreme Court bench acted suo motu on Nov. 17, 2021, to expunge its own observations.
The court deleted the controversial passage and replaced it with: “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 [to the death penalty] in view of the factual position discussed in the earlier paras.”
The bench also struck another contentious statement that had read, “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.”
It was replaced with a simpler declaration: “There is no justification for interfering in someone's religious belief by any means.”
Reactions
Congressman Manickam Tagore condemned Hembram’s release on social media platform X, posting, “A hate-fuelled murderer who burned alive Graham Staines and his two little sons is now walking free. Mahendra Hembram’s release is a celebration for Sanghis [right-wing Hindu nationalists], but a dark stain on Indian justice. What message does this send?”
Ajay Singh, the activist priest in Odisha (formerly Orissa) state, emphasized that Hembram and Dara Singh’s crime should not be treated as a “simple murder.”
“This is a rarest of the rare crime against humanity, where Staines and his sons were burnt alive in a most barbaric way, and if murderers like Hembram and Dara Singh are released and that release celebrated in this manner, that will send a wrong message to those who indulge in such crimes,” the priest said.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Hindu nationalist parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), applauded the release of Hembram.
“It is a good day for us. We welcome the government’s decision,” said VHP Joint Secretary Kedar Dash.
Odisha state’s current BJP Chief Minister Mohan Majhi had previously supported Dara Singh’s release during his tenure as Keonjhar Member of Legislative Assembly. Dayal noted that, with the current chief minister of Odisha as one of the main activists seeking Dara Singh’s release, “The political clamor for his release too is on the rise.”
Legal Process
Hembram, initially detained at Jharpada Jail in Bhubaneswar, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Sept. 22, 2003. Over the course of 25 years, he was transferred to facilities in Cuttack, Berhampur, Baripada and Anandpur Sub-Jail before arriving at Keonjhar Jail on Sept. 28, 2011.
Prison officials gave Hembram a cordial farewell, presenting him with a bank passbook containing earnings from prison labor.
The release follows Odisha’s 2022 premature release policy. Guidelines specify minimum 14-year sentences for life convicts before considering remission, with serious murder cases requiring 20-25 years. Age considerations apply for female convicts over 60 and males over 65.
Another 30 murder convicts also were released on April 16, having served 14 to 25 years.
“The government decided to release several life convicts who have served more than 14 years in prison,” Keonjhar jail superintendent Manaswini Nayak told media.
Jharpada Jail Senior Superintendent Manoranjan Pratihari detailed the process.
“The state sentence review board, led by the home secretary, recommends releases based on district collectors’ and SPs’ remarks,” he said. “Following the board’s approval, files proceed through the chief minister’s office, with final remission approval from the governor.”
Official sources confirmed 14 life convicts were released between 2023 and 2024.
Dara Singh’s Pending Plea
Attention now focuses on Dara Singh’s appeal. On March 19, the Supreme Court directed the Odisha government to decide within six weeks on his remission plea.
“Learned counsel representing the state of Odisha submits that the government is deliberating on the issue and will shortly take a decision on whether to remit the sentence,” the court stated. “We deem it appropriate to adjourn the matter for six weeks.”
Singh’s lawyer, Vishnu Shankar Jain, cited the Supreme Court’s precedent in releasing A.G. Perarivalan, who served more than 30 years for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
“I am seeking a direction [for Singh] to be released from jail on this ground,” Jain said.
Singh’s petition claims that after 24 years of incarceration he has “repented” of consequences of actions taken in a fit of “youthful rage.”
“In the fervor of youth, fuelled by impassioned reactions to the brutal history of India, the petitioner’s psyche momentarily lost restraint,” the plea states.
The petition notes Singh was never granted parole, including when his mother died, preventing him from performing her last rites.
Singh continues serving concurrent life sentences for separate murders of a Muslim trader and a Catholic priest, the Rev. Arul Das. The case will be heard in early May, potentially concluding one of modern India’s most divisive criminal proceedings.
Christian support organization Open Doors ranks India 11th on its 2025 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. India stood at 31st place in 2013 but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi came to power as prime minister.
Religious rights advocates point to the hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist BJP, which they say has emboldened Hindu extremists in India since Modi took power in May 2014.
