Policeman Suspended For Taking Bribe To Allow Devotee To Enter Jagannath Temple In Odisha’s Puri

Puri: A sepoy of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRBn) of OSAP was suspended after he allegedly taking bribe from a devotee to allow him to go inside Jagannath temple through western door in Odisha’s Puri on Saturday.

According to sources, Subhasis Das, a jawan of 3rd IRBn, was deployed at the western gate to keep an eye on the visitors to the temple. As per the temple administration’s restrictions, devotees are allowed to enter the temply only through eastern gate. All the rest three gates are used only by the servitors of the temple.

A video camera has captured a devotee giving some money to the jawan at the western gate and allowed to go into the temple. As the video went viral in social media, there was a strong resentment among other devotees.

Following this, Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh suspended the jawan and directed additional SP Sushil Mishra and security officer of the temple Kaushik Mayak to investigate into the matter and submit the report.

It may be noted that the devotees and opposition parties in the state have been demanding reopening of all four doors of the temple to facilitate darshan. The three doors were closed as part of restrictions imposed during COVID pandemic.