'Saffron brigade hails verdict'

BHUBANESWAR: The saffron brigade on Thursday hailed the high court judgment in the Graham Staines murder case, while Christian groups said it had given an opportunity to Dara Singh to become a "transformed person."
Political parties, going by the sensitive nature of the case, remained tightlipped over the development.
Bipin Bihari Ratho, president of Orissa-unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, welcomed the judgment, saying: "It is a historic judgment which will repose people''s faith in judiciary."
Ratho, himself a senior advocate and ex-president of Orissa High Court Bar Association, said: "The judges have shown the highest sense of judicial enlightenment and activism.The verdict has proved that the propaganda by pseudo-secularists and vested interests about Dara was malicious and fabricated."
Another Sangh affiliate, Hindu Jagaran Manch, too, welcomed the judgment. "It is a partial victory for Hinduism over cultural invasion by missionaries in India," Manch state-unit chief Ashok Sahu said.
The state convenor of Bajrang Dal, Subhas Chouhan, in turn, said, "The verdict has proved the dictum ''Satyameva Jayate (Truth shall always prevail)"''.
The All-Orissa United Christian Forum, on its part, said the commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment should transform Dara. "The reprieve he received is a gift from God.
He should become a transformed person. We look forward to seeing a transformed Dara," forum president Binoy Kumar Muduli said.
At the same time, he expressed fears that the judgment might encourage "fundamentalists to unleash terror against minorities in Orissa, where people of minority community are not well protected".
Subhankar Ghosh, chairman of Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home and a close associate of Graham Staines, too, echoed similar sentiments, stating that the HC judgment had given a chance to Dara to be a better man in the future.
A guarded state BJP spokesperson Nayan Mohanty said, "We are waiting for a copy of the judgment." Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Jayadev Jena also preferred to steer clear of controversy, saying, "The HC has given its verdict. What can we comment on it?" Ruling BJD leaders declined to comment.
Mukesh Jain, president of Delhi-based Dharmarakhya Shri Dara Sena, said, "In the backdrop of the HC judgment, the Orissa government should withdraw the case against Dara Singh. If government could withdraw cases against Naxalites, the same should be done in Dara''s case, who has become a demigod for the tribals."