Odisha: Aide of Jagannath temple’s servitor held for sexually abusing boy

BHUBANESWAR: A servitor’s assistant (jatri gumasta) at the Jagannath Temple in Puri, was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor boy inside the shrine, the third such arrest since 2021 from the temple precincts.
Sudarsan Mishra (42) of Puri was charged with sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy, who has been learning Vedic chants and hymns at the Sanskrit toll, run by Puja Panda Nijog (a prominent association of servitors) inside the Jagannath Temple.
“Whenever Mishra found me alone in the temple, he forcibly took me to an isolated place inside the shrine and sexually abused me. He had been doing this unnatural offence since the last one-and-a-half months. Around 1 pm on Tuesday, I was present near Niladri Vihar museum in the temple when he sexually assaulted me. I raised an alarm and ran away,” the complainant said.
The minor, who until now had been enduring the trauma and never disclosed it to anyone out of fear and shame, lodged a complaint with the Singhadwar police station on Tuesday evening.
Police booked Mishra under sections 377 (unnatural offences), and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life) of the IPCand section 10 of POCSO. Police said Mishra does not belong to the servitor community.
On December 10, 2021, the police arrested LaxmiNarayan Khuntia (65), a servitor of Goddess Laxmitemple, a subsidiary shrine in Jagannath Temple, for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy inside the shrine.
On October 9, 2021, police arrested Sangram Dash, a priest of Bamana temple, another subsidiary shrine in Jagannath Temple, for allegedly molesting a minor girl from Hyderabad inside the shrine. After this incident, the Puri child welfare committee (CWC) had asked the temple administration to take steps to prevent such offences in the temple.
“We have been sensitising servitors of the main Jagannath Temple as well as of the subsidiary shrines to be cordial with visitors. Any kind of misconduct that portrays the temple in poor light will not be tolerated. Apart from police action, erring servitors will face disciplinary action under the Shree Jagannath Temple Act 1954,” a senior temple officer said.