Missing Ratna Bhandara Key: Oppn Flays Judicial Probe Order

Bhubaneswar: The opposition parties have strongly condemned the judicial probe order by the Odisha government into the missing of the Jagannath temple’s Ratna Bhandara key.

“The state government, which had remained silent since last two months, suddenly decided to go for a judicial probe into the incident to divert the public attention. Instead of ordering a judicial probe, the government could have asked for either a Crime Branch or a CBI probe. But it didn’t do as its intention is to delay the probe,” Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik told media persons here on Monday.

Justifying his claim, Patnaik said prior to this judicial probe, the state government has earlier instituted several judicial probes the report of most of them is yet to come.

Supporting the Congress leader, BJP state unit vice-president Sameer Mohanty said criminal case should be registered against those who are responsible for the missing key.

“After the verification of Ratna Bhandara by a 17-member team of the committee, nominated by the Chhattisha Nijog, on April 4, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) had a meeting in the evening on the same day. After the meeting, Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal had admitted that the key of the Ratna Bhandara is missing. When the collector had told this, then the question is, why the committee members had gone to inspect the Ratna Bhandara and why the government did not act promptly to trace out the missing key?” Mohanty asked.

Terming the judicial probe order into the incident is just eyewash, the BJP leader said the state government till date has instituted 22 judicial commissions of inquiry and the people of the state are aware of the outcome of these probe commissions.

Welcoming the judicial probe order by the state government, senior servitor of Jagannath temple Binayak Dasmohapatra said disciplinary action should be taken against those who were in charge of the temple administration since 1978 till date.

Informing the media earlier in the day, Law minister Pratap Jena had said the chief minister has taken an important decision by ordering a judicial probe to find out under what circumstances the Ratna Bhandara key is not found, when the key was last used to open the Ratna Bhandara, where the key was kept after the Ratna Bhandara was closed and who is responsible for the missing of the key.

He said the judicial probe would reveal detailed incidents which will enable the government to take appropriate action.