The Times of India News Service

BHUBANESWAR: A 13-year-old boy has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for being part of the mob that killed Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons. This is the first conviction in the case.

The court for juvenile crime, consisting of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sukumar Sahoo and Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate G Mahapatra, held Sudarshan Hansda, alias Chenchu, pronounced the sentence on Saturday. Chenchu has since been sent to the jail for juveniles in Anugul.

In all, 18 persons were charged with the murder of Staines and his minor sons, Phillip and Timothy. They were burnt alive while asleep in a van outside a church in Keonjhar district's Manoharpur village on the night of January 22, 1999.

Since Chenchu was the only minor in the group, his case was separated from others. He was arrested by the Special Task Force a few months after the incident.

The trial of 14 others, including the main accused Dara Singh, is scheduled to begin in the sessions court here from December 1, while three more accused are yet to be arrested by the CBI, which investigated the case.

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