Bhubaneswar: The state government on Friday extended the tenure of Justice Raghubir Dash Commission of Inquiry, which is probing the missing keys of the treasury of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, by another three months. The three-month term of the commission was expiring on Friday.

Recently, commission secretary Kasinath Panigrahi had written to the home department seeking a further extension of its term by three months since its inquiry into the missing keys was yet to be completed.

The issue was raised in the Assembly on Thursday by BJP Legislature Party leader K.V. Singh Deo, who had sought to know from the government whether the term of the commission would be extended or not.

The government had appointed Justice Dash, a retired high court judge, in June as the head of the commission of inquiry to probe into the circumstances leading to missing of the keys of the ratna bhandar (treasury) of the temple following a hue and cry over the issue. The panel had visited the temple on July 30 and held its first sitting on that day.

The panel has already conducted verification of the affidavits submitted by the law secretary, the chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration, the administrator (rituals) of the temple, the Puri district treasury officer, former Puri collector Arvind Agrawal, present Puri collector Jyoti Prakash Das, social activist Rajkumar Mohanty and convener of Jagannath Sena Priyadarshan Patnaik.