Cuttack: The state government Wednesday informed the Orissa High Court that the report of Justice Raghubir Dash Commission of Inquiry into the missing keys of Srimandir Ratna Bhandar will be tabled in a Cabinet meeting, while urging the state’s apex court to allow some time for the purpose.
A division bench of Chief Justice Arindam Sinha and Justice Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo posted the next hearing to March 12. The court had sought a clarification from the government after a petitioner contended that lakhs of devotees of Lord Jagannath would want to know the circumstances under which Ratna Bhandar keys went missing and later found. The petitioner further insisted that the inquiry report should be made public. It was in April 2018 when the disappearance of the keys to the inner chamber of the temple vault came to light after Puri district administration said that it could not locate them.
Following a direction from the HC, an attempt was made April 4, 2018, to open the inner chamber for an inspection of its structural condition by an ASI expert team. Their attempt did not succeed owing to the unavailability of keys. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had then stated that since there was no permission to enter the inner chamber by Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), the committee could only examine it from the outside through an iron grill. Two months later, the then district magistrate Aravind Agarwal reported that a duplicate key of Ratna Bhandar was found in the district record room adding fuel to the lingering controversy over the treasure trove. It was in a sealed envelope carrying a tag of a ‘duplicate keys of Bhitara Bhandar’, with a seal of the temple administrator of 1985. This led to an outrage, prompting the then Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janta Dal government to appoint an inquiry commission under retired Orissa HC judge Dash to investigate the missing keys issue. The commission submitted a 324-page report in November 2018, but the Naveen government did not table it in the Assembly.