Bhubaneswar, Mar 07: Dara Singh, the prime accused in the Graham Staines murder case, and some of his co-accused made an attempt to escape from the circle jail at Choudwar on February 27 last, the prosecution today told the trial court. Dara and others tried to escape from the jail which was foiled by the prison staff, CBI counsel K Sudhakar told the court of the district and sessions judge, Khurda, M N Patnaik, which took up a petition filed by the Additional Director General of Police (Prison), B B Mohanty and the jail superintendent in this regard. The petition also alleged that Dara and six of his co-accused had attacked and injured jail superintendent S M H Pasha and some other jail officials on the same day.

It pleaded that the accused be kept hand-cuffed both inside jail and when taken outside.


As the trial had reached its fag-end, it would be difficult to nab the accused persons if they managed to escape now, Sudhakar argued.

The defence counsel, Shyamananda Mohapatra, stated that Dara and the other co-accused had been to the jail superintendent's office on February 27 where they had an argument after which jail staff beat them up.

Mohapatra said he did not know whether these people (accused persons) retaliated or not. Bureau Report