Police to move court today seeking warrants against servitors on the run

Bhubaneswar/Puri/Cuttack: Puri police will move court today to seek search warrants against the erring servitors who indulged in unruly behaviour during Niladri Bije on Sunday night, who hav been identified from the video footage.

Yesterday, Puri SP Sarthak Sarangi had said, “I want to inform them (wanted servitors) through the media that legal action will be taken against them. Tomorrow we will urge the court to issue search warrants against them.”

While two servitors have so far been arrested on charges of misbehaving with Puri Collector Aravind Agarwal, a few more sevayats have been identified by the police against whom it wanted to take action for threatening to kill the collector. The police swung into action after Agarwal filed an FIR against the servitors.

The arrested servitors are Surya Narayan Pratihari and Raghunath Khuntia.

On Friday, servitors Damodar Mahasuara, Jayakrushna Mahasuara and Harinarayan Khuntia, who are on the run after police began a hunt to nab them, knocked on the doors of the Orissa High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

On July 18, the Singhadwar police registered criminal cases against the six servitors - Damodar Mahasuar, Jaykrushna Mahasura, Saina Khuntia, Ipsit Pratihari, Bhimsen Palankadhari and Rabi Das - on the basis of the two complaints filed by Agarwal. Apart from those named in Agarwal's complaints, police have identified nearly 50 other priests, who created ruckus during Niladri Bije, heckled the collector and assaulted media persons.

The collector invited the wrath of the accused and their ilk when he stopped Damodar from taking his daughter onto the chariots during the final ritual of Rath Yatra.