Attack on Puri Jagannath Temple Servitors: Five Accused Held

Puri: Five persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly attacking four servitors of Shree Jagannath Temple in Odisha’s Puri.

The servitors were injured in the organised attack by a group of over 10 armed miscreants on Wednesday night.

The accused, identified as Rajesh Mohapatra of Puri’s Basoli Sahi, Santosh Kumar Mohanty of Pana Priya Lane, Nirmal Kumar Pradhan of Thanapati Nagar, Sujit Kumar Mohanty of Hatishala and Srikant Kumar Parbat of Cuttack’s Narasinghpur, were produced in court on Friday, police said.

Following the incident, the Puri SP had formed a three-member team to nab the accused. “The accused were trying to escape out of the Puri Town on Friday when police personnel overpowered them,” Puri Town IIC Gokula Ranjan Das said, adding that three swords, three bikes and five cell phones have been seized from their possession.

According to sources, the incident took place in Gudia Sahi area under the jurisdiction of Puri Town police station late on Wednesday night when the servitors were returning home after attending a feast at Shankareshwar Peeth.

Sevayats identified as Madhusudan Patri, Kashinath Pratihari, Batakrushna Mohapatra and Rajan Pujapanda were injured in the attack.