(Article was originally posted on April 17, 2025.)

Mahendra Hembram, one of the convicts in the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, was released from Odisha’s Keonjhar jail on Wednesday after spending 25 years in jail.

Officials said the release was granted on the grounds of “good behaviour,” based on the recommendations of the Odisha State Sentence Review Board and in accordance with the state’s premature release policy.

Now 51, Hembram was convicted for his role in the horrifying attack that took place on the night of January 21, 1999, when a Hindu right-wing mob torched a jeep in which Staines and his sons — Timothy (6) and Philip (10) — were sleeping in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district.

The three were burned alive, a crime that drew global outrage and became a grim symbol of Hindutva violence in India.

At the time of the crime, Hembram was 25 years old and part of the group that carried out the deadly assault.

Upon his release, he was garlanded by supporters, who raised Hindutva slogans of “Jai Shri Ram.”