KolkAta, Sept 22: An Indian court sentenced to death on Monday the ringleader of a Hindu mob that burned an Australian missionary and his two young sons alive, a prosecution lawyer said.

Graham Staines, Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6, were attacked by a mob led by Dara Singh as they slept in a jeep in eastern Orissa state four years ago during a wave of attacks on minority Christians blamed on Hindu hardliners fighting conversions.

“The court has given the death sentence to Dara Singh,” said K. Sudhakar, a lawyer for the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Singh and 12 other men, who all pleaded innocent, were convicted of the murders last week and the court on Monday sentenced him to death by hanging and his accomplices to life in jail. He is expected to appeal.—Reuters