Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: A 62-year-old woman died and three others were taken ill allegedly due to suffocation inside the Jagannath temple in Puri, 60km from here.
The temple today witnessed a congregation of more than two lakh devotes on the first day of “Panchuk” (last five days of the auspicious Kartik brata).
While the temple administration denied the allegations of death due to suffocation, sources said the deceased, P. Tribeni Patra, 62, experienced chest pain after returning from the temple today. “She died on the way to Puri district headquarters hospital. We suspect she might have died of heart attack,” said additional district medical officer Prabhat Kumar Sahoo.
Patra, a native of Ganjam, lived with her relative in Puri.
Three other devotees were also rushed to the district headquarters hospital after they complained of suffocation during darshan. Sources said all of them were senior citizens. While two of them collapsed fell after waiting hours for a darshan, another senior citizen was rushed to the hospital with chest pain.
Despite arrangements by the temple administration, the devotees were seen standing in a queue to enter the temple.
“We have made arrangements to regulate the flow of crowd. There was no mishap inside the temple,” said public relations officer of the temple Laxmidhar Puja Panda.
In 2006, at least four devotees, including three women, died and 20 others were injured in a stampede inside the temple during Panchuk. The incident had taken place when devotees suddenly started running inside the Jagmohan of the temple to witness the mangal aarti.
The devotees alleged that the temple administration had taken not adequate measures for crowd regulation. “It is only natural that lakhs of devotees would throng to the temple for Panchuk. But the temple administration has not taken any measures to manage crowds. Consequently, we have to stand for hours in queue to get a darshan,” said Nirakar Sethy, a devotee from Balasore.
A large number of devotees also turned up at Dhabaleswar, a famous Shaivite shrine near Cuttack.
