Cuttack: Dara Singh, who is sentenced to death in the diabolic Graham Staines murder case recently by a court, on October 10 filed an appeal before the Orissa High Court in Cuttack challenging the verdict.

In his petition, filed through his counsels Brahmananda Panda and Bana Mohanty before the Court, Dara pleaded that his appeal be admitted, the records be called for and the verdict of the trial court set aside as he was innocent.

Dara also filed a separate petition praying for his release on parole to enable him to participate in the obsequies in his home village in Uttar Pradesh following the death of his father Mihilal on October 1.

The appeal is likely to come up before the court on October 13.

Dara had been convicted, along with 12 others, on September 15 by the district and sessions judge, Khurda, M N Patnaik under sections 120 b, 148, 149, 435, 436 and 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A week later, the court sentenced Dara to death while awarding life sentences to the 12 others.

Senior counsel Brahmananda Panda told reporters that in the appeal, Dara had claimed himself to be innocent saying he had no role in the killing of the Australian missionary and his two minor sons.

The petition also claimed that the Cental Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to establish the authenticity of the First Information Report (FIR) in the case while stating that three key prosecution witnesses had failed to identify Dara in court.

After being sentenced to death, Dara had said that he would not appeal against the verdict in a higher court.

His counsel Bana Mohanty said that Dara had changed his mind after being advised by his family members, friends and many others to appeal against the verdict.

PTI