‘Bogus’ App Dupes Devotees On Plea Of Performing Puja In Puri Jagannath Temple During Rath Yatra

Puri: Taking advantage of people’s religious sentiments, a digital platform has allegedly duped them lakhs of rupees on the plea of performing online puja at Jagannath temple in Odisha’s Puri.

As per reports, the platform, Utsav, advertised in digital media to help the devotees, who are unable to come to Puri during Rath Yatra, by performing puja on their behalf in the temple and on the chariots of the deities. It went online from June 16, a few days before the car festival which was celebrated on June 20.

It came up with several offers including online puja on chariots with a cost of Rs 4,500, special puja inside the temple at Rs 2,401, ‘Dhwaja Bandha’ at Rs 2151 and ‘Nama and Gotra Sankalpa’ at Rs 801. It also claimed to conduct “Atika Bandha” for Rs 11,501 while no such ritual is performed in the temple.

Around 3,700 devotees have availed the offer and made the payment online to the platform for performing the puja.

But the servitors of the temple said there is no provision for performing online puja nor the temple administration has made any announcement in this regard. “The online platform Utsav, which is operating from West Bengal, has cheated several devotees by taking donations from them on the false promise of performing different rituals during the Rath Yatra. It is a bogus platform and I traced it on the day of Rath Yatra,” a local TV channel quoted Sambhunath Khuntia, a servitor, as saying.

Jagannath Sena also staged a demonstration on Friday in front of Gundicha temple in the Pilgrim Town demanding stern action against the platform.