Woman Commits Suicide inside Puri Jagannath Temple

BY: SUN STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Cops removing the body from Jagannath Temple, from the side of Meghanada Wall

May 26, JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA — A married woman, believed to be in her 50's, committed suicide inside the world famous Jagannath temple at Puri on Tuesday, raising a serious question mark on the existing security in and around the shrine. Identity of the deceased was not ascertained till evening.

The suicide came close on the heels of the freak incident in which a mad man climbed the pinnacle of 215-meter tall Jagannath temple earlier this month.

Hours after the shocking incident of suicide came to notice early morning, the Puri district collector suspended two Jagannath Temple Police (JTP) personnel and permanently removed another two security men for dereliction of duty.

“We immediately took action against those found with sheer negligence on duty. While two JTP security men were placed under suspension, another two security guards were removed from their service permanently. More heads may roll,” collector Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma said. “Inquiry is on into the case. We are also trying to find out her name and identity,” said Sarma, who is also the temple’s deputy chief administrator.

Priests performed a purification ritual (maha snan) at the shrine after the unprecedented incident rocked the temple town. Sources said that the daily rituals of the Lord were delayed for a few hours because of the suicide.

The woman committed suicide in Koili Baikuntha (shrine garden), located inside the temple precinct. “Her body was found hanging from the ceiling of a roof in the garden on Tuesday morning. We suspected that the incident might have taken place on Monday night,” said Arun Kumar Dalei, the inspector-in-charge of the Singhadwar police station. Police did not find any suicidal note or any other objects near the body. It was suspected that the woman used to beg inside the temple.

Priests trained their guns on the lax security system at the temple. “It was clearly a huge security lapse by the cops on duty when the crime took place. If police said that she committed suicide on Monday night, the question comes how she could stay inside the shrine in the night. Every night the shrine complex gets purified and not a single person is allowed to stay inside during frisking. But the woman flummoxed the security men and hid inside the shrine before killing herself in the same night,” senior priest Rabindranath Pratihari said.

This is perhaps for the first time such a crime took place inside the Jagannath Temple, spread over 10 acres of land. The temple is home to around 128 sub-shrines inside the premises. Around 30,000 devotees visit the temple on any given day. Not less than 250 cops man the Jagannath Temple on a normal day.