BHUBANESHWAR, India - A witness denied Tuesday having told police that three key suspects stayed in his house a week before they allegedly killed an Australian missionary and his sons.
Khageswar Dalei, a 35-year-old shopkeeper, also rejected the prosecution's claim that he had fled his village home after the triple murder on Jan. 23, 1999 and hid in a forested area for several days.
Christian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his sons, Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, were burned to death by a mob while they were sleeping in their vehicle parked outside a church in a tribal area of eastern Orissa state.
Dalei's testimony was a setback to the federal prosecuters, who had presented him to the court as a key witness who had allowed main suspects Dara Singh, Andha Nayak and Dipu Das to stay at his house before the killings.
"The ... investigators never examined me, nor did I ever record my statement before them," Dalei said.
Staines' station wagon was attacked while it was parked in front of a church in Manoharpur, a remote village 235 kilometers (145 miles) north of Bhubaneshwar, capital of Orissa.
Anti-Christian sentiment had been on the rise in the region and several other attacks on Christians occurred before and after the Staines killings.