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Bajrang Dal welcomes CBI clean chit in Staines murder By Jatindra Dash, Indo-Asian News Service Bhubaneswar, Jan 28 (IANS) Hardline Hindu group Bajrang Dal Tuesday welcomed federal investigators' decision to absolve it of blame for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines. "We were framed," Subash Chouhan, the chief of the Bajrang Dal's Orissa unit, told IANS in this state capital. "Now the truth has come to light." The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday gave a clean chit to the Bajrang Dal saying the group's activists were not involved in the gruesome murder four years ago. Staines, 58, and his two minor sons -- Philip, 9, and Timothy, 6 -- were burned to death as they slept in a jeep in Manoharpur village of northern Orissa's Keonjhar district on January 23, 1999. The CBI has charged 18 people, including prime accused Dara Singh who allegedly led the hysterical mob that torched the jeep in which Staines and his sons slept. Opposition parties including the Congress had alleged the hand of the Bajrang Dal -- which is affiliated to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- in the murder. "I found no link between the Bajrang Dal and the 18 people charge-sheeted in the case," CBI investigating officer Joginder Nayak told a district and sessions judge in Khurda on Monday. Nayak was the 55th witness to depose before the court here that has been conducting the trial of the sensational case since March 1, 2001. "Although the FIR (first information report, or written complaint) lodged by the CBI had identified six people, including Dara Singh, as members of the Bajrang Dal, we did not find evidence to corroborate this claim," Nayak said. A 14-year-old boy, Chenchu, has already been sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for his involvement in the murder. Chenchu's case was separated from those against the other accused because he is a juvenile. The boy has appealed against the sentence. --Indo-Asian News Service
