DARA SINGH :THE MISSIONARY KILLER !

The real regret of his life is being denied permission to attend the funeral of his father, who passed away in October 2003. A devout reader of Hanuman Chalisa - thrice a day - Dara Singh, now in Keonjhar District Jail on life sentence for burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young boys, pointedly refuses to attend the all faith inter-religious meetings organised by the jail authorities. In January, 1999, Dara Singh and a team of Hindutva zealots had brutally massacred theStaines. Predictably, Dara Singh has appealed. The man also faces charges of murdering Muslim trader Shaikh Rehman and Christian priest Arul Doss in Orissa and the trials are still going on.Dara Singh’s day begins at 5 am. As the cell opens at 6 am, Dara every day does physical exercises and practices yoga for one hour. Though he has never seen Baba Ramdev, he follows the latter's healing practices of ‘Anulom-bilom’ and ‘Kapalbhati’ sincerely every morning. At about 9am, he takes his breakfast with other inmates. Dara likes to alternate tiffins such as upma or halwa, simai, chuda and mutter curry, etc. And a cup of tea is must.Dara then starts his new job assigned by the inmates just a month ago. He has been elected by the prisoners to be their latest ‘Sardar’, the representative for next four months. Basically the sardar decides the daily menu and looks into the proper utilisation of ration assigned per head. Every day at around 10 am, Dara, in consultation with jail staff, decides the menu for lunch, dinner and the next morning’s tiffin. Between 11 to 11.30, Dara shares his lunch – that is roti, rice, daal and a curry – with other prisoners. But he enjoys his lunch the most, on special days when ‘non-veg’ items are served, roti with mutton is his favorite.While speaking on a variety of issues with The Sunday Indian, Dara Singh avoids talking about the Graham Staines and other cases and prefers to project his status as a devout Hindu. May be he has reasons.