Indian Church opposes death sentence of missionary’s murderer

(November 12, 2010) Church people in India have opposed a federal government agency recommendation that the country’s Supreme Court hand down a death sentence to the man who murdered an Evangelical Australian missionary in the eastern state of Orissa 11 years ago. “We don’t advocate death sentence for anybody,” Catholic Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur told Ucanews agency on Friday. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked the court to award maximum punishment to Ravindra Pal Singh, convicted of burning to death Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in January, 1999. Staines worked among leprosy patients in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. Singh led a Hindu radical mob that torched the vehicle in which Graham slept with his children after a programme in a tribal village. A trial court sentenced Singh to death but the Orissa High Court reduced that to a life term. The CBI plea came after Singh challenged even this sentence in the New Delhi-based Supreme Court. Bishop Nayak said he supports life term for Singh and opposes setting him free as he is “dangerous” to society. “Justice has to be done to the victims,” he added. Father Charles Irudayam, secretary of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Development of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, CBCI, said punishing Singh is a “good lesson” for those trying to influence courts with money and political power after committing a crime. John Dayal, secretary of the ecumenical All India Christian Council (AICC) also opposed the death penalty.