The government told the Supreme Court that the violence had not happened inside the Jagannath temple, but the office of the temple administration was attacked and ransacked.
Taking note of the October 3 violence in Odisha’s Puri Jagannath Temple during a protest against the introduction of the queue system for devotees, the Supreme Court Wednesday said no policeman should enter the temple premises with weapons and shoes, PTI has reported.
The Odisha government, however, told the top court that 47 people have been arrested in connection with the violence and that the situation is under control now. It also added that the violence had not happened inside the Jagannath Temple but the office of the temple administration was attacked and ransacked.
Last Wednesday, nine policemen were injured in violence that broke out during a 12-hour bandh called by a socio-cultural organisation protesting the introduction of a queue system for devotees visiting the Jagannath Temple. The dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the seaside town called by Sri Jagannath Sena turned violent as a mob barged into the 12th-century shrine, uprooted barricades erected on Baisi Pahacha and near Singhadwara and ransacked the office of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), they said.
The protesters ransacked a police outpost and an information centre near the Singhadwara as well as the town police station, besides burning tyres and indulging in stone pelting, they said.
The queue system was introduced on an experimental basis and a review would be done as locals and servitors opposed it, a temple official had said.