The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Sunday suspended senior servitor Rama Krushna Das Mohapatra for 30 days for allegedly bringing disrepute to the 12th-century Puri Shree Jagannath Temple by making misleading statements regarding the origins of the idols at the new Digha Jagannath Temple.
Das Mohapatra will not be allowed to enter the temple or participate in any rituals during this period.
The SJTA took the step after finding his responses to two showcause notices unsatisfactory. The notices were issued after Das Mohapatra claimed, during the Digha Jagannath Temple’s consecration on April 30, that the idols installed there were sculpted from surplus neem wood left over from the 2015 Nabakalebara ceremony at Puri.
Das Mohapatra had told TV channels: “Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is my disciple. On her request, I went to Digha for the inauguration ceremony. Earlier, they had installed stone idols and I told them rituals cannot be conducted with stone idols. Later, I took idols from Puri made of neem wood, leftover from the 2015 Nabakalebara.”
Following the uproar after his comments, the SJTA probe concluded that they were false. It found that the idols in question were sourced from Bhubaneswar-based sculptor Sudarshana Maharana, not from Puri. Maharana confirmed he supplied the neem wood idols for the Digha temple, not leftover wood from the Nabakalebara.
The SJTA also noted that Das Mohapatra did not protest when the Digha temple was referred to as “Jagannath Dham,” a term reserved for the Puri temple, imbued with deep religious and cultural significance.