BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Supreme Court on Friday issued a slew of directions while hearing complaints of mismanagement of finances at the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal expressed concern over the missing keys of the inner chamber of its Ratna Bhandar which were last opened way back in 1985. “The Governor is eager to know the facts behind the missing keys,” said a statement from the Raj Bhavan.
The inner chamber of the 12th century temple’s Ratna Bhandar is supposed to contain a huge quantity of gold and silver ornaments. The district collector of Puri is the custodian of the keys and he discovered in April that they were missing. This prompted the Naveen Patnaik government on June 4 to set up a commission, headed by retired justice of Orissa HC Raghubir Das, to probe the case and submit a report within three months. But that seems to have added more suspicion to the controversy which has captivated the state. The inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar is believed to contain more than 128 kg of gold ornaments and over 200 kg of silver utensils. While the outer chamber is opened regularly to fetch ornaments for the deities during the annual Rath Yatra and other important festivals, temple records suggest the inner chamber was last opened in 1985.
The three keys to the outer chamber are in custody of the Puri ‘king’ (whose family for generations looked after the temple), the temple administration and Bhandar Mekap, a priest who looks after the treasury.
It was in April that the disappearance of the keys to the inner chamber came to light after the Puri district administration said it could not locate them amid a debate whether the room needed repair after cracks were noticed in the structure.
“We have no idea where the keys to the inner Ratna Bhandar are. The keys to the outer chamber are safe,” Puri district collector Aravind Agarwal said, adding “We tried to locate the keys in the district treasury but could not find them.”
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On Thursday, Puri ‘king’ Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb expressed surprise at the way many people, including temple servitors and senior BJD leader Damodar Rout, have raised questions about his role vis-a-vis the safe keep of the inner Ratna Bhandar keys.
The Jagannath Temple Act makes it mandatory to check the contents of the Ratna Bhandar every three years.
