Puri: The Orissa Police Thursday detained four Russian nationals for flying a drone equipped with a camera capable of taking high-definition images over the Srimandir here, a senior police officer said.
The Russians nationals were identified as Maxim Verkhoturov, Yulia Shvaleeva, Dima Zlobin and Elena Solodehuk. Three of the four, who said they were members of ISKCON, were women, the officer added.
The shrine and its periphery areas were declared a “no flying zone” by the district administration in 2014 after a quadcopter took aerial videos and photographs of the temple and uploaded them on social media. A round-the-clock patrolling team has also been deployed by the four towers surrounding the temple to prevent such incidents.
The four devotees from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) were operating the drone from the roof of the Radha Ballav mutt, close to the temple, the senior officer of the Singhadwar police station said.
They were questioned and then released on personal bonds Puri superintendent of police (SP) Sarthak Sarangi, said.
“During questioning, they said that they were not aware of the ‘no-flying’ rules in the area and were trying to photograph the shrine for creating a road map to the place,” he said.
They also said the map was primarily meant for a congregation in Puri next month of ISKCON devotees, Sarangi said, adding that all four had valid passports and visas.
Recently, the district police has decided to seize mobile phones on Srimandir premises after a devotee, Akash Madake of Pune in Maharashtra Wednesday uploaded at least 20 photos of the 12th century shrine’s interior on his facebook account.
Notably, this incident is the eighth such instance in the last three months when photos of Srimandir interiors went viral on social media which points fingers towards the lax security at the temple.
PNN/Agencies