Keonjhar: Nomination of Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, convicted in the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, was rejected on Monday during scrutiny of papers for Assembly elections in Orissa.
Dara Singh, currently lodged in a jail, had on April four filed his nomination paper for Ghasipura Assembly constituency in Keonjhar district through an agent.
"Rabinda Kumar Pal's papers were rejected during scrutiny today," Sub-Collector S C Mallick said, adding that the convict had not submitted his affidavit regarding his criminal antecedents and some other documents to justify his candidature as an Independent candidate.
Manoharpur village, where the missionary Graham Staines and his sons were murdered on the night of January 22, 1999, was within the Ghasipura Assembly segment from where he had aspired to be elected.
Dara, convicted in September 2003 for the killing, had set fire to the station wagon in which Staines and his sons Philip and Timothy were sleeping.
Though Dara and his associate Mahendra Hembram were awarded capital punishment by a district court, Orissa High Court later commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.
Besides, Dara was also accused in 11 other cases including killing of another Christian priest Arul Doss and a Muslim trader.