Singh alias Rabindra Kumar Pal had filed a petition in the High Court seeking an interim bail for a month to visit his ailing mother in Uttar Pradesh. The petition was heard by the bench on Thursday.

Singh was convicted and awarded a death penalty by a lower court in Bhubaneshwar in 2003 in connection with January, 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two minor sons at Manoharpur village in Orissa's tribal dominated Koenjhar district. Subsequently, the death penalty was reduced to life term by the Orissa High Court. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court after Singh, originally a native of Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, moved the apex court seeking further relief.

Similarly, last year a lower court in north Orissa Mayurbhanj district had pronounced life terms for Singh in two separate murder cases - the murder of Christian priest father Arul Doss and Muslim businessman Shaikh Rehman.
Singh has already moved the High Court challenging the lower court's verdict in Arul Doss and Shaikh Rehman murder cases.