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Twenty-four-year-old Bhakta Marandi, a key Central Bureau of Investigation witness in the sensational Staines murder case, identified Dara Singh the main accused in court on Wednesday.
Marandi also identified another accused Rajat Kumar Das alias Dipu Das, a close associate of Singh.
He told the court that on the night of January 23 ,1999 in Manoharpur village he saw Dara Singh, with an axe in his hand, instructing miscreants to attack the vehicle near the church in which Staines and his minor sons were sleeping before setting it on fire.
It is the first time that a witness has identified Singh directly in court.
Last March, Paul Murmu, a 52-year-old CBI witness, told the court that he saw a bearded man resembling Singh but failed to identify him in court.
Marandi was the second witness produced by the CBI before the District and Session Judge of Khurda in connection with the killing of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons Philip and Timothy at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district. Earlier in the day the CBI produced Namai Hansdar, the driver of Staines for 15 years, who accompanied Staines to Manoharpur village just before the incident.
Marandi, a daily labourer and a Christian by birth, told the court during his cross examination that he was woken up by his wife at around midnight after hearing sounds near the church.
"When I stepped out of my house some people threatened to kill me if I dared to go near church," he said.
He said he then went out through the back door of his house. "I saw a tall man with an axe instructing the miscreants to beat the vehicle in which Staines were sleeping," he said. He said that before setting the vehicle on fire, the miscreants surrounded it and were beating it.
When asked by the Judge Mahendranath Patnaik to identified the miscreants among the accused standing in the dock, he pointed his finger towards Dara Singh. "He was the tall man with the axe," he said. He also identified Rajat Kumar
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