Judicial probe to unlock row over missing key

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Bhubaneswar: With resentment swelling over the ‘missing keys’ of Srimandir Ratnabhandar – the treasury of Lord Jagannath at Puri, the state government Monday ordered a judicial probe to solve the mystery.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has ordered a judicial inquiry into circumstances leading to non-availability of the keys of the Jagannath Temple’s treasury,” a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.
The judicial inquiry would be conducted by a retired High Court judge and would be completed within three months, it said. The move by the state government comes a day after Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati demanded a thorough probe into the missing keys. Puri king Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb too had expressed shock over the matter.
A temple managing body meeting held in Bhubaneswar April 4 revealed that the Puri Collector had informed the meeting about the loss of keys of the inner chambers of the Ratnabhandar and that despite searches, the missing keys could not be found.
This was reported by the Collector just a day after a 16-member team of experts, who had been asked by the HC to conduct structural inspection of the Rantabhandar, desisted from opening the inner chambers of the treasury and conducted the inspection of the inner chamber by peeping through a window of the outer chamber using powerful searchlights.
As per Jagannath Temple Act 1960, the keys of the inner treasury are handed over to the Collector after locking the temple treasury. The keys are then deposited in the district treasury. However, there was no mention of the receipt of the keys either in the government treasury or with the Collector.
Meanwhile, the issue triggered wide-scale resentment among devotees across the state.
Opposition Congress and BJP alleged that the judiciary inquiry had been ordered by the government only to buy time so that public anger evaporates.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee chief Niranjan Patnaik slammed the state government over the issue, saying either CBI or Crime Branch should have inquired into the matter.
Jagannath Sena – an outfit of Jagannath devotees, also agitated in front of the CBI office here and filed an FIR seeking a probe by the agency into the matter. The outfit has planned to move HC Tuesday in this regard.