Puri: A woman tourist of Agra, who visited Sri Jagannath temple here along with her family, on Monday lodged a police complaint against a personnel of Jagannath Temple Police (JTP), Sudarshan Sahoo, alleging physical abuse.
The complainant, identified as Natasha Guha, said the JTP man beat her with a stick near the darshan place inside the temple.
The complainant further said, “When he (JTP personnel) tried to pull my saree and hair, I resisted. During that scuffle, he might have got hurt accidentally.”
“I want him to be punished so that the same thing does not happen to anyone else in the temple.” a visibly disturbed Guha demanded.
Rabi Narayan Khuntia, a servitor, who was a witness to the scene, said, “The quarrel began when the JTP man beat the complainant through a paper roll. The issue soon snowballed into this.”
Elaborating on the case, Jadunath Jena, officer in-charge of Simhadwara police station, said, “The woman devotee from Uttar Pradesh, along with her family, had come to the temple for having a darshan whereas the JTP was managing the crowd inside the Srimandir with a small stick. Accidentally, the stick hurt the woman’s baby. Following this, the mother had a quarrel with the JTP constable and tried to beat him. In his reaction, the JTP pushed the woman. In this matter, two complaints have been registered at the police station.”
The police official added investigation is on. On the basis of the woman devotee’s complaint, a case has been registered under Sections 341, 323 and 354 of IPC whereas another case on the basis of the JTP man's complaint was lodged under Sections 341, 294, 323, 506 and 34, the police officer stated.