Dara Singh (born Rabindra Kumar Pal; 2 October 1962) is an Indian convicted murderer and a Bajrang Dal activist. He was previously a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was convicted for leading a mob and setting fire to the station wagon in which the Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were asleep, burning them all alive, in Orissa.
Singh had been convicted in the murder of Muslim trader Shaikh Rehman, severing his arms before setting him on fire at Padiabeda village in Karanjia sub-division of Mayurbhanj district. Singh was also convicted of the murder of a Christian priest, Fr. Arul Das, in Jamboni village in the same district. The priest was killed by an arrow during his escape, after his church was set on fire.
Singh was arrested after a year-long chase in January 2000 after the murders of Graham Staines and his sons, and is now serving his life sentence in prison.
Early life
Dara Singh was born as Rabindra Kumar Pal, the son of Mihilal Pal of Kakor Village, Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh. He has an elder brother who was employed in the National Thermal Power Corporation and four married sisters. He has a first-class degree in arts and is also well-versed in Hindi. He stayed at Delhi for a brief period of time where he worked in a grocery business. In 1989, he moved to Maliposhi in Orissa, after he got a job as a Hindi teacher at a local School.
Political life
Dara Singh was a member of the BJP. He was also an activist of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). The Police reported that Dara Singh was an active member of the Go suraksha samiti, an initiative financed and implemented by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Singh was also involved in the BJP and known to have campaigned for the party during the 1998 elections and also been involved in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) rallies and camps. Singh was also alleged to have worked for the BJP during the 1991 elections in Patna. According to the Government council, Dara Singh attended RSS camps, he professed to be a Bajrang Dal activist and believed in the strong propagation of Hindutva.
Criminal activities
Dara Singh's base of operations was the relatively affluent Padiabeda village in Mayurbhanj district Singh was involved in the cow protection movement of the Bajrang Dal and targeted Muslim cattle traders.
Because cow slaughter is banned in Orissa, Dara Singh often intercepted trucks transporting cows to West Bengal, releasing the animals and setting the trucks on fire. All his targets were Muslim truck drivers. He redistributed the cows to the local people; in this way he achieved a degree of popularity among the tribal people and became a political figure. Some of the villagers gave him shelter after he was on the run for more than a year during the Graham Staines case. He had a small loyal band that was increasingly involved in violent opposition to what they perceived as anti-Hindu forces.
In September 1998, a cattle truck was looted and torched, and the trucker's assistant, Shaikh Imam was beaten to death in Godabhanga Ghati in the Mayurbhanj district. Singh was charged in this case and eventually acquitted in October 2006 due to lack of sufficient evidence and hostile witnesses.
In September 1999 Arul Das, a Catholic priest, was shot and killed with an arrow in Jamabani village in Mayurbhanj district by a gang led by Dara Singh; Das was fleeing the building, which had been set on fire. In September 2007 Singh was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, along with associates Chena Hao, Rajkishore Mohanta, and Jadunath Mohanta.
On 26 November 1999 more than 20 men armed with machetes attacked Shaikh Rahman, a Muslim garment merchant, in Padiabeda village, beating him and severing his hands. His body was then set alight and incinerated to prevent his family members from recovering it, and his garment stall was also set on fire. Singh and his associate Buluram Mohanty were indicted in connection with this killing. In October 2007, Singh was convicted of the murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment, while the 23 others were acquitted on grounds of insufficient evidence.