In a setback to CBI, the Supreme Court today dismissed its plea for death penalty to Dara Singh, convicted for burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in January 1999. It however upholds the life sentence given to him by the Orissa High Court. A bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said, the death penalty can be imposed only in the “rarest of rare” cases depending upon the facts and situation of each case. In the present case, the apex court said, the offence committed by the convicts, though highly condemnable, does not fall in the category of rarest of rare to warrant death sentence. Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembrom were found guilty of burning to death Staines and his sons, who were sleeping inside a van outside a church, at Manoharpur village in Koenjhar district of Orissa on January 22, 1999.The bench had on December 15 last year reserved its judgement after hearing at length the arguments of CBI's counsel and Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha and counsel for the convicts.