KEONJHAR, India, April 16 – One of the convicts in the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons was released from an eastern Indian prison on Wednesday after serving 25 years, authorities said.
Mahendra Hembram, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, was freed from Keonjhar jail in Odisha state on the recommendation of the Odisha State Sentence Review Board. Jail officials said the release was carried out in accordance with legal provisions related to good conduct.
Hembram, now 50, was 25 when he participated in the mob attack that led to the deaths of Staines and his sons, aged 10 and 7, who were sleeping inside a van that was set ablaze in the forested town of Manoharpur on January 22, 1999. The incident sparked international outrage and drew global condemnation.
Upon his release, Hembram was greeted by supporters who garlanded him and shouted religious slogans including “Jai Shri Ram.”
Dara Singh, the prime accused in the case, remains behind bars. Singh’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Orissa High Court in 2005. A campaign seeking his release has in the past been supported by Mohan Majhi, the current chief minister of Odisha, who was the local legislator at the time.
In total, 51 individuals were arrested in connection with the killings. Of these, 37 were acquitted during the initial trial. Fourteen were convicted by a designated Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court, though 11 of those were later acquitted by a higher court. One of the accused, a juvenile at the time, was released in 2008.
The Staines family had been working with leprosy patients in India for several years. Following the killings, Gladys Staines, the missionary’s widow, publicly forgave her husband’s killers, a gesture that drew widespread attention.
