TMC MP Mukul Roy & Family allowed to touch Lord Balabhadra

SJTA Chief Administrator Suresh Mohapatra has criticised the servitors’ act to allow Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy and his family members to touch Lord Balabhadra during the ‘Pahandi’ in Bahuda Yatra today.

He termed the act as against law and ‘avoidable’. However, Lord Jagannath’s chief servitor (badagrahi) Jagannath Swain Mohapatra alias Jaguni saw nothing wrong in it and said, if someone touches the deities out of devotion, it should be a matter of pride of Odisha.

Jaguni also slammed the restrictions imposed on the devotees, saying it won’t serve any purpose, rather it will hurt the religious and spiritual sentiments of the people. He was recently issued a notice for turning a blind eye to the misdeeds of a servitor, who allowed a Hotelier woman to climb the chariot of Lord Jagannath before Adap Pahandi of the deities.