Dara Singh acquitted in Godbhanga truck loot case

Baripada, Oct 30 (UNI) Dara Singh, alias Ravindra Pal Singh, and his welve other accomplices were exonerated by a Sessions court in the Godbhanga truck loot trial case in which the cleaner of the vehicle was allegedly battered to death.

Pronouncing the judgment in open court, Mayurbhanj District and Sessions Judge Sribasta Kumar Pradhan said, ''All the accused are acquitted of the charges due to lack of evidence.'' Dara Singh, now lodged in the Baripada Circle Jail along with all the other twelve accomplices, was produced in the court amid tight security.

The courtroom was crammed full of when the verdict acquitting them of the charges was handed down.

According to the prosecution, Dara Singh and his accomplices had allegedly set a truck carrying buffalos afire at the Godabhanga Ghati on Anandapur-Thakurmunda Road in the early hours of September 14,1998.

They had reportedly blocked the road to stop the truck and set the truck ablaze after releasing buffalos. The buffalos were being carried from Niali in Cuttack district to a weekly market at Jashipur in Mayurbhanj district.

The cleaner of the truck, Sheikh Imam, was allegedly beaten up by Dara and his associates. Imam later succumbed to his injuries at the SCB Medical College, Cuttack, where he was admitted for treatment.

Dara and others were facing trial under sections 396/435 and 412 of the IPC. This was the first Sessions trial case in which Dara Singh and his accomplices were acquitted for lack of evidence.

A jubilant Dara, sentenced to life in the murder of Australian Missionary Graham Stewaart Staines and his two minor sons, touched the feet of his counsel and thanked them before boarding the jail van waiting off the court premises.

Two other criminal cases, involving Dara Singh and his associates, are now in various stages of trial in the court of the District and Sessions Judge, Mayurbhanj.

They pertain to the murder of the readymade garment dealer Sheikh Rahaman at the Padiabeda haat (weekly market) and the murder of the Christian priest Father Arul Doss of Jambani Church under Mahuldiha police station limits of Mayurbhanj district.

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