Puri: Former Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief Suresh Chandra Mohapatra has submitted the final probe report to the SJTA recently on the mismanagement in Ghata Paribartan ritual of Srimandir deities in 2015.
The former SJTA chief, also the incumbent principal secretary to Forest and Environment Department, has submitted the report to the temple administration in a sealed cover. The report will be presented at the next Jagannath temple managing committee meeting, sources said.
There had been speculations over inordinate delay in the investigations and non-submission of the probe report by the former SJTA chief. The temple managing committee had earlier raised concern over non-submission of the report by Mohapatra even after two years of the incident.
Notably, Ghata Paribartan, the ritual of transferring Brahma (soul or life substance) from old idols to new ones, was conducted during the Nabakalebara festival in 2015. As per Srimandir norms, the secret ritual should be conducted on the intervening night of Amabashya and Sankranti June 15. However, the ritual got delayed and was conducted in broad daylight June 16. The delay in the ritual had hurt the religious sentiments of crores of devotees triggering a state-wide uproar.
The then SJTA chief Mohapatra had conducted a probe into the mismanagement and after preliminary inquiry suspended Kashinath Dasmohapatra and his son Jaykrushna. Mohapatra had also recorded the statements of four Badagrahis (idol protectors), four upa dalapatis, Biswabasu, Vidyapati, Biswakarma and Deulakaran servitors. Meanwhile, Mohapatra revoked suspension of two Daitapatis during the annual Rath Yatra last year even if the probe was not completed. Two years after the gross mismanagement in the crucial Ghata Paribartan ritual, the devotees were in dark about the status of the report.
There were allegations that the authorities were showing undue favour to a group of servitors by covering up the Ghata Paribartan issue. In the last temple managing committee July 13, the house had requested Mohapatra to submit the final probe report within three weeks. Mohapatra has submitted the report recently.
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