One arrested for vandalisation of Puri Jagannath temple kitchen

Bhubaneswar, April 6 (IANS) The Puri police on Wednesday arrested one person on the charge of vandalisation of earthen ovens in Rosaghara (kitchen) of the Jagannath temple in Puri, police officials said.

Over 40 chullahs (earthen ovens) were found damaged when the doors of the kitchen opened on Sunday morning for cooking of Mahaprasad. This incident had shocked the Lord Jagannath devotees and they demanded strong action against the culprits.

Following this incident, the police had launched a manhunt and on Tuesday detained the prime suspect from Khurda. On Wednesday they arrested the accused person identified as J. Mohapatra.

Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh said that the arrested person has confessed to the crime during interrogation and he has been taken to court.

During interrogation, the suspected youth identified as J. Mohapatra (30) from Begunia area of Khurda district admitted that he felt uneasy about something in the kitchen and ransacked the ovens, Singh said.

The mental state of the accused youth will be known after taking the opinion of experts, he said.

Talking to a local news channel, the accused admitted that he had destroyed the 'chullahs' while visiting the temple kitchen.

"When I entered the kitchen, I found that it was dirty. After cleaning it, something uneasy came to my mind and I destroyed several chullahs," the accused said.

Speaking to reporters his father said, "He is a religious boy and had shared his displeasure over uncleanliness in Jagannath temple with us in the past. I do not know if he has vandalised the temple kitchen."