The Lions Gate police on Friday detained eight persons from atop the Emar Mutt here for launching a drone camera to shoot the visuals of the Jagannath Temple.
The people belonging to West Bengal were reportedly shooting for a short movie staying on the rooftop of the mutt when local people caught notice of them. On information by the locals, police immediately swung into action, seized the drone camera and detained all of them for questioning.
Sources informed the people engaged in shooting were working for a West Bengal based movie company ‘Lintus’. They came to Puri for taking visuals of some tourist spots for making a movie.
However, it is still unclear whether or not the drone camera was flying over the shrine premises. It is still unknown whether the people were arrested by police or let off.
No reaction came from the concerned police station when contacted to know the name of the persons and actions on them. Even the IIC of the police station did not respond to the phone call.
It may be noted here that a ban has already been clamped on camera long ago by the temple administration on security point of view. Even posting photos of inside views of the Shreemandir in public domain is a criminal act.
Despite a ban, in 2014 and 2016, the aerial views of the Jagannath Temple had gone viral on social networking sites captured by some flying quadcopters. Even recently on ‘Mahalaya’ a Sub-Inspector of Sea Beach police station had to face suspension from duty for posting the visuals of Baisipahacha on Facebook.