Morning Star News / video screenshot
CV NEWS FEED // A man who burned a missionary father and his 6- and 10-year-old sons alive in 1999 was released April 16 and received a “hero’s welcome,” according to Morning Star News.
Mahendra Hembram was greeted with garland and the chant “Jai Shri Ram [Hail lord Rama]” when he walked out of the Keonjhar jail, after the Odisha State Sentence Review Board released him for good behavior.
On Jan. 22, 1999, Hembram and Dara Singh, another Hindu extremist whose sentence is under review, led a mob against Graham Staines, 56, and his two young boys. Staines had worked with lepers since his arrival in the country in 1965.
“Accusing Staines of promoting conversion, Hembram allegedly assaulted him and his two children,” a retired police officer 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 said the family covered their station wagon in straw for warmth, but when they tried to escape the blaze, the mob, wielding long wooden poles, prevented them. All three people died, and their skeletons were later recovered.
Police arrested Hembram nearly a year later on Dec. 9, 1999. He was among 51 other suspects arrested between 1999 and 2000, 37 of whom were eventually acquitted.
Morning Star News reported that Hembram behaved erratically during his 2002 trial. On Feb. 1 of that year, he “lost mental composure and declared himself the sole culprit and claimed that others were innocent,” according to court records.
Singh was arrested Jan. 31, 2000. On Sept. 22, 2003, a court in Bhubaneswar sentenced Singh to death, and Hembram, along with 12 other protestors, to lifetime imprisonment.
Morning Star News added that Hembram was released according to Odisha state’s guidelines on early releases: Life convicts’ sentences can be remitted to a minimum of 14 years, with more serious murders requiring 20 to 25 years.
Keonjhar jail superintendent Manaswini Nayak explained, “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 outlet reported that another 30 murder convicts also were released April 16 after serving between 14 and 25 years.
“The government decided to release several life convicts who have served more than 14 years in prison,” Nayak told the media.
Hembram claimed upon his release that he was falsely accused of the crime.
A Catholic priest and a human rights activist, Father Ajay Singh, told Morning Star News that he was shocked by Hembram’s reception.
“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,” he stated.
He added that the 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,” he said, “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.”
John Dayal, spokesperson for the United Christian Forum, added, “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.”
Now the public is focusing its attention on Singh, who appealed his death sentence. His appeal states, “In the fervor of youth, fuelled by impassioned reactions to the brutal history of India, the petitioner’s psyche momentarily lost restraint,” and that he has now repented of his crimes.
On March 19, 2025, India’s Supreme Court instructed the state of Odisha to make a decision on Dara Singh’s appeal within six weeks.
Singh is also serving concurrent life sentences for separate murders of a Muslim trader and a Catholic priest, Father Arul Das. His case will be heard in early May.
