The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued suo motu clarification in Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons’ murder case judgment pronounced four days back without citing any reason for ordering the amendments in two crucial paragraphs on the conclusions drawn by the top court.
The first amendment made in paragraph 43 related to the conclusion upholding the Orissa high court verdict converting life sentence of key accused Dara Singh, alias Rabindra Kumar Pal, and the second correction was made in para 47 discussing about the issue of conversion.
The concluding sentence of para 43 of the original judgment pronounced by a bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan on January 21 read as... “In the case on hand, though Graham Staines and his two minor sons were brunt to death while they were sleeping inside a station wagon at Manoharpur, the intention (of a mob) was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely converting poor tribals to Christianity. These aspects have been correctly appreciated by the high court.”