Phulbani: The successor to the spiritual leader late Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and the incumbent manager of the Kanya Ashram at Jalespata Swami Jivanmuktananda Puri on Sunday allegedly received another death threat through telephone call.
The alleged death threat on Sunday made it two threat calls in 24 hours that left the monk worried for his life.
As per reports, the anonymous caller threatened to blow up the Ashram and kill Swami Jivanmuktananda Puri.
It is pertinent to mention here that, Jivanmuktananda Puri had allegedly received a similar threat call on Saturday evening after an anonymous caller who claimed himself to be affiliated to a Naxal organisation, threatened to end his life and blow up the ashram.
Speaking exclusively to OTV, Jivanmuktananda said, "I think, the people responsible for the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda are getting active and behind this threat call. Nobody has been punished in Swamiji's murder case. So it has encouraged the criminals to issue death threats to me as well."
"Getting scared is natural, but that does not mean I will close down this Ashram and Flee. I have got adequate security arrangements provided by the police here," said Jivanmuktananda.
"However, I cannot say for sure, what will happen after the police withdraws its cover from ashram. Being a sadhu, even I need protection as I need to move out from Ashram for preaching," he added.
Earlier on Saturday, Jivanmuktananda Puri of Jalespata ashram had lodged a complaint in this regard at Tumudibandh police station. Acting on the complaint, inspector-in-charge Babashankar Saraf visited the ashram and assured to provide security.
Meanwhile, a seven member team of Odisha BJP including two MLAs, Mukesh Mahalinga and Kusum Tete will visit Jalespata Ashram on Sunday to take stock of the situation.
The other five members in the team as reported are Surama Padhi, Biranchi Tripathy, Satyabrata Panda, Sishir Mishra and Karendra Majhi.
(Edited By Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty)