Odisha CM orders probe into "missing" keys of Jagannath Temple treasury

The Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha has ordered a judicial inquiry into the "missing" keys of the Ratna Bhandar (treasury) of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, The Hindu reported.

According to a statement released by the Chief Minister’s Office, “The inquiry will be conducted by a retired judge of the Orissa High Court and is to be completed within three months.”

This came to light when Puri District Collector Arvind Agarwal, during a recent temple management committee meeting, observed that there was no official record about availability of the Ratna Bhandar’s keys.

On April 4, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration wanted to open the inner chamber of the treasury for inspection. However, they were unable to do so due to unavailability of keys. Eventually, they had to return after peeping into the chamber through a broken window.

As per norm, the keys should be in possession of the District Treasury. After locking the temple treasury, the keys need to be handed over to the District Collector. However, there was no mention of receipt of keys either in the government treasury or with the Collector.

Interestingly, the administration had tried opening the Ratna Bhandar twice in the last two decades but failed due to the opposition by a section of people serving the temple. According to them, opening the Ratna Bhandar would hurt sentiments of devotees.

In the last Assembly session, Law Minister Pratap Jena said the last assessment of valuables stocked in the temple’s treasury was carried out in 1978. According to that, the treasury had around 128kg of gold ornaments.

Jagannath Sena, an outfit that raises issues regarding the temple, has asked for a CBI probe into the missing keys of the treasury. They said judicial inquiries in the past have yielded no results.