Bhubaneswar/Keonjhar, May 18: Two absconders in the case in which Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons were burnt alive by a mob in Odisha in 1999, were arrested on Friday by the CBI, with the agency later taking them on remand for four days.
The two absconders, Ghanshyam Mahanta and Ramjan Mahanta, were caught in Anandpur area of Keonjhar district by CBI sleuths in the early hours, Inspector In-Charge of Anandpur police station, Abhay Shankar Kar said.
Ghanshyam was arrested from Gayalamunda village and Ramjan from nearby Bhaludhera and immediately whisked off to Bhubaneswar, he said.
“Both the accused were taken to the CBI office in Bhubaneswar and interrogated,” CBI DSP B K Pradhan said.
A third absconder, Budhi Naik of Nischintpur village under Ghatagaon police station in the district, is still at large.
The two were produced at the CBI special court in Bhubaneswar which rejected their bail petition.
CBI judge Dr R K Mishra accepted a CBI petition and remanded them to the custody of the investigating agency for four days.
CBI counsel K P Mishra said that the two would be produced in the court of the special chief judicial magistrate at Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
Staines, along with his two minor sons, Philip and Timothy, were burnt alive by a mob led by Rabinda Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh in front of a church at Manoharpur village while they were sleeping in their station wagon on the night of January 21, 1999.
The charred bodies were recovered the next day sparking worldwide outcry over the brutal killings.
On September 22, 2003 a special court awarded death sentence to Dara Singh and life imprisonment to 12 others.
The Orissa High Court on May 19, 2005 set aside the death sentence of Dara Singh and commuted it to life term.
The high court retained life imprisonment awarded to Mahendra Hembram, another accused, while acquitting 11 others.
On January 21, 2011, the Supreme Court upheld life imprisonment for Dara Singh by the Orissa High Court and his accomplice Mahendra Hembram.
Two juvenile accused were acquitted in a separate court.
