Bhubaneswar, May 8. (PTI): A prosecution witness today claimed that Dara Singh, main accused in the Graham Staines murder case, had met him two months after the Manoharpur incident and confessed that he along with some others had set fire to the vehicle in which the Christian missionary and the children were asleep.
Narendra Nayak, a farmer, told the court of the District and Sessions Judge, M N Patnaik here that Dara, tonsured and clean- shaven, met him when he was working in the paddy field of his father about two months after the Manoharpur incident.
The witness, who belonged to Telanadisahi village under Thakurmunda police station of Mayurbhanj district, said that the two had lunch together after which Dara went to sleep in a small hut constructed in the field to keep vigil over the crop.
Nayak said that when he wanted to know as to why Dara had tonsured his head, he replied that he had done so, because he and his men had burnt the Christian missionary and the two children after putting straw inside the vehicle.
Deposing before the court, Nayak revealed that Dara stayed in his field till evening and fled the place by wading through the nearby Telanadi river when a police combing party arrived on the spot.
Nayak, who told the court that he knew Dara and two of his associates, Andha Nayak alias Anirudhha Dandapat and Dipu Das alias Rajat Kumar Das, could identify only Dara and Andha from among the 14 accused persons standing in the dock. However, he could not identify Dipu who was also present among the accused persons.