Four Russians detained for using drone to shoot Puri Jagannath Temple

BHUBANESWAR: Four Russian tourists, including two women underwent harrowing time for trying to click aerial photographs of Jagannath Temple in Puri by using a drone on Thursday. Singhadwar police seized their camera-fitted drone and deleted photographs of the shrine's interior complex. They were interrogated for several hours in the police station.

While camera is off limits to Jagannath Temple, the district administration in 2014 declared airspace around Jagannath Temple as 'no fly zone' after a similar incident had then created flutter. Police said the foreigners used the drone to catch a glimpse of the interior of the shrine, which is dotted with several small sub-shrines under the open sky. Jagannath Temple has access for only Hindus.

"We verified the travel documents of the foreigners—Maxim Verkhoturov from Divnogorsk, Yulia Shwlcova from Nizhny Novgorod, Dima Zeobin from Divnogorsk and Elena Solodehuk from Oktyabrsky—and would release them after routine questioning. Since their act is not a serious criminal offence, we would release them after issuing a warning. The foreigners insisted ignorance about the restriction on use of unmanned aerial vehicles and drones over Jagannath Temple," superintendent of police (Puri) Sarthak Sarangi told TOI.

Jagannath Temple stands amongst one of the highly sensitive shrines in the country. In 2014, an unidentified foreign tourist created quite a flutter when he uploaded aerial photos and videos of the temple on social networking sites. Sensing aerial threat to the temple, the district administration then imposed ban on flying of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles above Jagannath Temple. However, the administration has not laid down any penal provision for violation of the order.

Police continued to remain on their toes as devotees managed to take their cameras and mobile phones inside the shrine and clicked photographs and selfies. The selfies taken by devotees kept hitting the social media, raising question mark on the security frisking at the four entrances of Jagannath Temple.

According to Section 30-A (4-C) of Jagannath Temple Act 1953, devotees cannot take camera into the shrine. Violation of the Act is a punishable offence and attracts imprisonment up to two months and Rs 1,000 fine. But police have so far not registered any case as the temple administration never lodged any complaint. Temple body said they only imposed fine on violators.

Last week, the district administration rescued a Russian tourist, who was found begging outside Jagannath Temple.