The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested one of the prime accused in the murder of Graham Stuart Staines from Mayurbhanj district, nearly 21 years after the Australian missionary was burnt alive with his two minor sons.

Sub-divisional police officer, Karanjia, Narayan Chandra Nayak told reporters: “The CBI arrested Buddhadev Naik from Nischintpur village in Bharandia panchayat under Thakurmunda police limits.”

Naik was arrested on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

On January 22, 1999, a mob led by Bajrang Dal supporter Dara Singh had burnt alive Staines and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6, in Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district that adjoins Mayurbhanj.

The central agency had later arrested 13 people, including Dara, a prime accused, in connection with the case. However, Naik, a key associate of Dara, had been absconding since then.

The high court had acquitted 11 people but Dara and another accused are serving life terms.

Earlier, a sessions court had handed the death sentence to Dara. But in May 2005, Orissa High Court had commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

Dara had appealed against the life sentence in the Supreme Court but a bench of the top court upheld the judgment of the high court in 2011.