A peon working with the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration was caught stealing cash from the Puri Srimandir donation money.
As per reports, the accused was employed at the donation cell of the Srimandir and was engaged in counting of the cash collected in the ‘hundi’ from the devotees.
While the identity of the accused has not been revealed by the SJTA yet, the matter came to the fore after the peon was caught stealing cash on the CCTV cameras installed inside the counting room.
Following the discovery of the theft, the accused was detained and upon search, Rs 35,000 cash was recovered from him.
It is pertinent to mention here that while devotees can always donate to Srimandir through online mode, there is a hundi at the Temple too for the devotees who wish to make donations in cash.
Cash donations can be made physically at the Donation Cell of the SJTA Head office on Grand Road Puri and at the branch office located inside the Srimandir premises.
As per the SJTA data, Rs 4,43,165 cash was collected in Hundi on February 8, 2024 (Thursday). Apart from that the Hundi collection had 1.1gm of gold and 18.5gm of silver donated by devotees.