Tourists from Maharashtra lodge a complaint against a servitor at Temple police station in Puri. Picture by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 6: A 40-year-old servitor of the Jagannath temple, Puri, was today accused of stealing Rs 50,000 from a Maharashtrian devotee inside the sanctum sanctorum.

He was detained for questioning for sometime after a devotee from Maharashtra, Prakash Maruti Salunke, 35, lodged a complaint with the Temple police that the servitor had stolen a wad of currency notes wrapped in a polythene bag from his pocket.

Salunke, who was accompanied by three friends, said that he was paying obeisance to the Holy Trinity when the incident took place.

“It was crowded inside. We were bowing before the idols when one sevayat held me by my collar and I felt someone taking out my moneybag containing Rs 50,000. When I came out of the sanctum sanctorum and checked my pocket, I realised the money was missing,” said Salunke, who visited the temple at around 10am.

He immediately informed the police, who accompanied him inside.

“We found the empty polythene bag at the feet of a sevayat at the same spot. I frantically searched for the money but did not find it. So, I lodged an FIR with the police and suspect the same sevayat to have picked my pocket,” said Salunke.

The police have begun an investigation into the matter, but said it was unlikely that the servitor would have been involved in the incident.

“Compared to the other sevayats, the accused has a better track record. We suspect the moneybag either slipped from Salunke’s pocket during the darshan or some other person might have stolen it. However, we are treating the allegations with all seriousness and will get to the bottom of the matter,” said inspector in charge of the Temple police station Laxmidhar Swain.

Let off within an hour, the servitor will be brought in for questioning again on Monday, said a police officer. “The accused is a servitor of Goddess Lakshmi and his detention interfered with temple rituals. So we had to let him go,” said Swain.