Puri: Singha Dwara police Tuesday detained Jagannath temple servitor Shyam Pujapanda for questioning in connection with an incident where a police official sneaked inside Puri Jagannath temple during lockdown.
According to a source, the servitor had helped Barchana IIC Deepak Kumar Jena in entering the temple even though the temple is out of bounds for devotees in view of COVID-19 outbreak.
While the IIC was stopped by a cop deployed at the south gate while he was violating the lockdown norms, the former threatened the cop and barged inside along with family members.
Shyam Pujapanda is said to have helped him.
With no other options left, the cop at the gate filed a report at Singha Dwara police station following which the IIC was detained along with his family members Monday. Subsequently, Pujapanda was also detained. IIC Jena was later suspended for his misdemeanour.
