FIR against Sree Jagannath temple priests for defying HC order

A day after suspending 9 servitors from the Lord’s service, Sree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) today filed an FIR against three priests for allegedly violating an Orissa High Court order on climbing chariots and disrupting rituals during Rath Yatra festival.

The SJTA in its complaint with the Singhadwar police station said the three servitors were found taking a woman to the ‘Taladhwaja’ chariot of Lord Balabhadra during a ritual on Sunday night. They also created disturbance during a ceremonial procession of Lord Sudarshan.

These servitors allegedly abused Puri District Collector Aravind Agarwal, who tried to stop them from violating the High Court’s 2014 order where it was said that none other than the authorised persons would be allowed to climb the chariots.

The servitors against whom the FIR has been lodged were identified as Damodar Mahasuara, Jayakrushna Mahasuara, Ipsit Pratihari and others.

Yesterday, the SJTA suspended nine servitors from service of the Lord for violating the ban on climbing the chariots, misbehaving with Arvind Agarwal and attacking media persons during a ritual.

Earlier, the police have arrested six servitors on charge of attacking the media persons on Sunday night. They were sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the sub-divisional judicial magistrate’s court yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Odisha IAS Association has condemned the act of servitors who publicly abused Puri Collector Aravind Agarwal.

“We will soon convene an emergency meeting to discuss on the matter. We strongly condemn the incident and demand action against the servitors who misbehaved with a the Collector,” said IAS association secretary Vishal Dev.

Agarwal, a 2007 batch officer was also allegedly threatened with life allegedly by some servitors. The district collector has filed two FIRs in this connection.