Sevayats Close Doors Of Puri Jagannath Temple Protesting Police Assault

Puri: Thousands of devotees were deprived of darshan of the sibling deities as the sevayat bodies’ protesting against the assault on a sevayat by the police, closed all the doors of the main temple of Lord Jagannath on Friday.

Though Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and Puri collector Jyoti Prakash Das had a meeting with sevayat bodies on Thursday evening and this morning to resolve the issue, there has been no outcome of the meeting till reports last came in.

Due to the stalemate, there have been no rituals of the Lords since last night till this morning.

“We had taken up the matter with the SJTA after the police assaulted a sevayat yesterday and demanded action against the police. But it did not listen to our demands. So we have closed the doors of the main temple and decided not to perform any rituals of the Lords till our demands are met,” said Sambit Muduli, a sevayat.

Talking to mediapersons on Friday, the collector said he had a discussion with the sevayats for the second time after the incident and requested them to allow the devotees to have the darshan of the Lords. But they did not relent.

“The Lords have remained without food since last night due to the non-cooperation of the sevayats and the devotees coming to Puri from different parts of Odisha and the neighbouring states have returned without the darshan of the Lords. This is not the right message for the devotees across the world. Since the sevayats have stuck to their demands, I will have a meeting with the SJTA chief administrator,” he added.

The incident had taken place on Thursday afternoon when the temple police had detained Bhabani Bhittarachha Mohapatra, a senior servitor who had accompanied two devotees with him to the temple. However, an altercation ensued after the police later asked him to reveal the identity of the two devotees. Later, Bhabani had a scuffle with the police in which some policemen allegedly assaulted him.

Following the incident, tension ran high among the servitors who met the SJTA authorities and demanded action against the police on the basis of the CCTV footage. But as the SJTA did not take any action, the irate sevayats went on a cease work and stopped the rituals of the Lords in the evening.