BHUBANESWAR: Senior BJD leader and former minister Damodar Rout flayed Puri district collector Aravind Agarwal after ‘duplicate’ keys of the inner Ratna Bhandar (treasury) of Jagannath temple were discovered from the latter’s office record room on Wednesday.“I wonder from where the duplicate keys surfaced. If at all the duplicate keys really existed, why was the collector unaware of it before. He should have the knowledge as district collector is custodian of the inner chamber’s keys,” Rout told media persons here. Rout said there is growing suspicion among people about whereabouts of the original keys. “The collector’s earlier remarks in April that the keys were untraceable and Wednesday’s revelation about emergence of duplicate keys deepened the mystery. Only Lord Jagannath can solve the mystery,” Rout said.Rabindra Mishra, a retired official of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) said there is no provision in the temple act to prepare duplicate keys of Ratna Bhandar. Mishra claimed he was part of an official team that had supervised the opening of inner Ratna Bhandar in 1985 to fetch some ornaments for Lord Balabhadra. The inner treasury was last opened in 1985, though inventory of the jewelleries was conducted last in 1978.Several servitors and local residents too flayed Agarwal for giving a new twist to the Ratna Bhandar’s missing key controversy. “I have been serving the deities for several years. Neither I nor my predecessors had ever heard of the presence of any duplicate keys of the treasury. The collector’s revelation that he found a sealed envelope, containing duplicate keys of inner Ratna Bhandar sounds enigmatic,” senior servitor Binayak Dasmohapatra said.Collector Agarwal, who was unavailable for comment on Friday, told the media on Thursday that he is ready to face any inquiry. “I did not commit anything wrong,” he told on Thursday.Congress state president Niranjan Patnaik targetted chief minister Naveen Patnaik and posed him some questions relating to Ratna Bhandar. “I want to know from the CM if at duplicate keys exited earlier. Where are the original keys? Why was the government silent about duplicate keys? Who are the others, possessing the duplicate keys? While the inner Ratna Bhandar’s keys should have been stored in the district treasury, how was it discovered from the collector’s office record room,” asked Niranjan.Volunteers of Jagannath Sena, a voluntary organisation, staged demonstration outside Jagannath temple on Thursday, demanding Agarwal’s ouster. Sena volunteers alleged that a number of controversies erupted in Jagannath temple during the tenure of Agarwal, who is also the deputy chief administrator of Jagannath temple administration.Amidst the raging controversy, senior bureaucrat Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra assumed charge as chief administrator of SJTA on Friday. Mohapatra, who had served temple’s chief administrator between 2010 and 2012, replaced Jena, who was removed on June 11 in the wake of disappearance of the inner Ratna Bhandar keys.

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