The Bahuda Yatra celebration at the Shree Jagannath temple in Khambakul Mutt under Sangrampur panchayat in Balikuda block was disrupted for hours as violence erupted between villagers and Mutt Mahanta on Friday.
Angry villagers attacked cops, injuring SDPO and few other police personnel, and set fire on Mahanta’s ancestral house in the village. One person was arrested.
Following the incident, two platoons of police force accompanying senior police officers and magistrate have been deployed at the village. The situation was under control, police said.
Trouble surfaced as villagers opposed Mutt Mahanta Biswajit Padhy to conduct sweeping rituals on the chariot. Subsequently, villagers and Mahanta supporters clashed with each other.
Villagers didn’t spare police who tried to pacify the situation.
Villagers including women pelted stones at cops and damaged a PCR van. In the incident, the Jagatsinghpur SDPO and a few other police men were injured.
The villagers were pacified only after police and magistrate asked the Mahanta not to perform the sweeping ritual. Temple’s senior priest Hrudananda Padhy conducted the sweeping ritual and then the chariot rolled towards temple.
Soon after the incident, a few angry villagers rushed to Mahanta’s ancestral house in the village and set the house on fire. Later, Balikuda fire brigade personnel doused the fire.
Basing on an FIR lodged by Mutta Mahanta, police registered a case against a few villagers and could arrest a person, Manoj Bhoi, informed SDPO Prakash Chandra Pal.
According to the SDPO, villagers demand is unwarranted as Mahanta possesses an order of the Orissa High Court which empowers him as sole trustee of the Mutt.