(RNS) Seven people accused in the 1999 murder of a missionary in India were released from jail May 24, upsetting the country's Christian community.

On May 19, a court ruled there was insubstantial evidence to prosecute most of those accused of killing Graham Staines, an Australian who was burned to death along with his two sons. The court also commuted a death sentence against the main accused, Dara Singh, to life imprisonment.

Staines and his two sons, Philip and Timothy, were asleep in their station wagon when it was set ablaze by a mob in a village in Orissa. Singh was the alleged ringleader of the mob.

A missionary originally from Australia who had worked with lepers for decades, Staines had been conducting annual camps in religious and social discourse. The camps, like other activities conducted by Christian evangelicals, have come under attack from Hindu groups, who contend that poor Hindus are easy prey for conversions.