Tension prevailed in the Shree Jagannath Temple on Wednesday morning following a scuffle between a group of jawans and servitors. Reportedly, seven jawans of the Army Cantonment unit at Golabandha in Ganjam district had come for darshan of the lords at the temple. While they were having the darshan of the Trinity during the Mangal Arati, a servitor, Somanath Mekap, came to them with a platter and allegedly asked them to pay money in the name of the lords.
One of the jawans, T Madhav Rao, put Rs 50 on the platter and asked the servitor to return Rs 40 to him. The trouble started when the servitor asked Rao not to take Rs 40. An altercation ensued between them, after which there was scuffle in which both of them were injured. Besides, another servitor, lokanath Pujapanda, was also injured during the scuffle.
The Temple police rushed to the spot and took the injured servitor and jawan to the Simhadwar police station, where the duo lodged FIRs against each other. Mekap alleged that the seven jawans attacked him first while Rao, in his complaint, stated that the servitors attacked him after he demanded return of Rs 40. later, both parties filed a compromise petition before the police for amicable solution to the unsavoury incident. “We managed to bring the situation under control after having discussions with the complainants as both of them agreed for a compromise,” said the Simhadwar police station IIC.