Cuttack: The Mohan Majhi government on Wednesday told the Orissa high court in an affidavit that it is not obliged to make public the report of Justice Raghubir Das Commission of Inquiry into the missing Ratna Bhandar keys, according to local channels.
This stand contradicts its affidavit from June 19 of the previous year in which it consented to make the report public. This is also a departure from the BJP’s poll promise to make the judicial commission report public upon coming to power in Odisha.
The HC had sought a clarification from the government after a petitioner contended that lakhs of Lord Jagannath devotees would want to know the circumstances under which the Ratna Bhandar keys went missing and later found. The petitioner further argued that the people of the state have a right to know about the findings of the commission on which the exchequer spent Rs 23 lakh.
Following the government affidavit, stating that it cannot be forced to disclose the report, a division bench of Chief Justice Arindam Sinha and Justice Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo posted the next hearing for March 12.
However, some reports, suggest that the state government has sought time from the court since the report will be tabled in a Cabinet meeting.
POLL PLANK
During the 2024 twin elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raked up the issue of the missing key of the Ratna Bhandar, the treasury of the 12th century Jagannath Temple in Puri, while accusing the previous BJD government of having suppressed the report. “The report of the commission of inquiry into the missing keys of Ratna Bhandar report has been suppressed for six years as the keys have gone to Tamil Nadu,” alleged Modi, while promising to make the report public after coming to power in Odisha.
Besides Modi, Amit Shah, J P Nadda and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, who campaigned extensively in the state, raised questions on the whereabouts of the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar.
THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING KEYS
It was in April 2018 that the disappearance of the keys to the inner chamber came to light after the Puri district administration said that it could not locate them.
Following a direction from the High Court, an attempt was made on April 4, 2018, to open the inner chamber for an inspection of its structural condition by an expert team from the ASI. Their attempt did not succeed owing to the unavailability of the keys. The ASI had then stated that since there was no permission to enter the inner chamber by SJTA, the committee could only examine it from the outside through an iron grill.
Two months later, the then district magistrate Aravind Agarwal reported that a duplicate key of the Ratna Bhandar was found in the district record room adding fuel to the lingering controversy over the treasure trove. It was in a sealed envelope carrying a tag of a ‘duplicate keys of Bhitara Bhandar’, with a seal of the temple administrator of 1985.
This led to an outrage, prompting the then Naveen Patniak-led BJD government to appoint an inquiry commission under retired Orissa High Court judge Raghubir Dash to investigate the missing keys.
The commission submitted a 324-page report in November 2018, but the Naveen government did not table it in the assembly.
