Bhubaneswar: Sudarsan Patnaik, a member of the Puri Jagannath Temple’s managing committee, on Monday demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the the case of missing keys of the 12th century shrine’s Ratna Bhandar.
Patnaik, who is also an internationally acclaimed sand sculptor, raised the demand during the managing committee’s meeting on Monday days after a govt-appointed committee, set up to supervise the inventory of Ratna Bhandar, broke its inner chambers’ three locks on July 14 after two duplicate keys available with the administration malfunctioned.The Ratna Bhandar was opened after 46 years to carry out its repair and inventory.
In 2018, original keys of the inner chamber were reported missing, prompting the previous BJD govt to order a probe by a retired judge of Orissa high court, Justice Raghubir Das.
“Mysterious disappearance of the original keys and emergence of the duplicate keys raised questions about the safety of the treasury. In the meeting, I urged the committee chairman and Puri king, Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb, to write to the govt for a CBI investigation,” Patnaik, who is also a member of the 16-member Ratna Bhandar supervisory committee, said.
The temple administration refused to comment when asked whether an FIR would be registered in connection with the missing keys.
“I do not want to comment on the issue,” chief administrator of the Jagannath temple administration, Arabinda Padhee, said.
Patnaik’s demand came a few days after the supervisory committee’s member and retired IAS officer, Jagdish Mohanty, suspected that the missing keys and the malfunctioning ones pointed towards a bigger criminal intent.

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