A group claiming to support Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, convicted murderer of Australia-born missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons, has threatened to kill a Christian priest in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district, a district intelligence officer told rediff.com today.
Members of the Dara Sena, an extremist outfit in the tribal districts of Orissa, have sent a threatening letter to Father Kuriakose, pastor of a Catholic church at Labanyadeipur in Mayurbhanj district.
The letter contains a threat to kill the priest if Dara Singh's conviction is not reversed on Monday, September 22, the date fixed by Khurda District and Sessions Judge Mahendranath Patnaik to sentence him and 12 others convicted of the gruesome murders committed in the night of January 22, 1999.
Father Kuriakose has informed the local Sarat police station and also handed the letter over to them, the officer said.
Armed policemen have been posted at the priest's residence and church till police verify whether the letter is genuine.Mayurbhanj is the district in which Graham Staines was working with leprosy patients and where his wife Gladys Staines is continuing his work now.
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