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Can’t be forced to release report on ‘missing’ Ratna Bhandar key: Odisha govt tells HC
The Mohan Majhi government’s stand is at variance with its affidavit on June 19 last year that agreed to make the report public
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The Mohan Majhi government on Wednesday told the Orissa high court in an affidavit that the court cannot force the government to make public the report of the inquiry commission set up to probe the missing Ratna Bhandar keys at Puri’s Jagannath Temple.
The Majhi government’s stand is at variance with its affidavit on June 19 last year that agreed to make the report public. In the run up to elections to the state assembly last year, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised to make the report public within a month of coming to power.
The high court is hearing a petition that has demanded the inquiry report into the keys be made public. Besides, the petition also wants the authorities to give a status report on the valuables in the Ratna Bhandar.
The Ratna Bhandar, located near the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, is arguably the most precious property of the temple that contains several priceless pieces of jewellery belonging to the shrine, including diamond, gold and silver.
According to “Madala Panji”, the official chronicle of the temple that dates back to 12th century, Eastern Ganga monarch Anangabhima Dev III donated more than 250 kg of gold, intended for Jagannath’s finery, and other monarchs such as Gajapati Kapilendra Dev donated gold, jewels and utensils.
The Ratna Bhandar has two chambers — Bahara Bhandar (outer chamber) and Bhitara Bhandar (inner chamber) that contain the gold and silver jewels offered to Lord Jagannath. During the last inventory of the Ratna Bhandar between May 13 and July 23 in 1978, 454 gold articles with a net weight of 128.380 kg and 293 silver articles weighing 221.530 kg were found in both the chambers of the treasury.
In July last year, all the jewelleries of the Lord were taken out from the Ratna Bhandar for audit as well as repair of the treasury.
In March 2018, following a public interest litigation filed by Abhishek Das, the Orissa high court ordered ASI to inspect the structural condition of the Ratna Bhandar and submit a status report. On April 4 that year, the 16-member team then attempted to enter the Bhandar, but the keys given to them by the Puri district collector did not match the padlock, with little explanation from the government on how the keys were mismatched.
There was no immediate resolution, and on June 5, the state government ordered a probe by Raghubir Das, retired judge of the Orissa high court, into the case of the “missing keys”. Nine days later, however, there was another twist, when Arvind Agarwal, the then Puri district collector, said that an envelope containing a duplicate key of the inner chamber was found. While this key has never been used, the inquiry commission submitted its report to the state home department in November 2018, which has yet to be made public.
In 2023, a Puri-based man named Dilip Baral approached the high court, arguing that the people of the state have a right to know about the findings of the commission on which the exchequer spent ₹23 lakh.
The disappearance of the Ratna Bhandar key became a major poll issue last year after BJP insinuated that BJD leader VK Pandian played a role in its disappearance. Union home minister Amit Shah in May last year had promised that once BJP comes to power, the report of the justice Raghubar Das commission of inquiry would be made public within one month.
