Dara Singh

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.