Bhubaneswar: Justice Raghubir Dash Commission visited Puri on Monday to start its probe into the missing key of the Jagannath temple's ratna bhandar (treasury).

The commission held discussions with officials of the temple and the district administrations. The second meeting of the commission will be held in Cuttack on August 7. The district administration is yet to file its affidavit before the commission.

Emerging from the meeting, Justice Dash said: "As the administration was busy with rath yatra, it could not submit the required affidavits. They have sought time to place their statements that would contain all the information the commission requires. We will sit on August 7 and decide on the future course of action."

He said: "So far four affidavits have been submitted before the commission. But these do not contain much information. We are expecting more affidavits in the next meeting."

On being asked whether Puri district collector Arvind Agrawal had submitted the closed envelop marked "duplicate key" to the commission, Justice Dash said: "There is a procedure for submitting documents. The district collector is yet to submit it, but he will soon do it."

The state government had instituted the judicial inquiry after the missing key controversy snowballed. The matter had come to light after an expert team failed to enter the inner chamber of the treasury on April 4 due to non-availability of the key.

But the temple administration had suppressed the fact, which came to light on June 1. The state government ordered the probe on June 6. Retired high court judge Justice Raghubir Das was assigned the task to probe the circumstances leading to the disappearance of the key and submit its report within three months.

Justice Das said: "If the inquiry is not completed within stipulated time, the tenure of the commission will be extended."

Before starting the probe, Justice Das had gone to the shrine and offered prayers. However, at the temple he had to face the wrath of Jagannath Sena, an outfit that claims to work for the preservation of Jagannath culture.

Sena chief Priyadarshi Patnaik said: "The setting of a commission of inquiry is an eye-wash. We have evidence how the Puri temple administration placed the key inside the district treasury room to save the district collector and the government."