About eight lakh devotees thronged the coastal town of Puri on Tuesday morning to witness the annual sojourn of three deities, Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra, on three majestic chariots from the 12th-century Sri Mandir to the Sri Gundicha Temple.
Hundreds of security personnel were deployed and vehicular movements were controlled from all directions to ensure that the event passed off peacefully.
From the morning, lakhs of devotees started arriving in the town. A few hundred priests performed a series of intricate rituals to prepare the deities for the yatra. The three chariots reached Sri Gundicha Temple covering 3 km on Grand Road.
Orissa Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik witnessed the grand spectacle at Puri. The Rath Yatra festival was also organised in several prominent towns of the State during the day.
A woman died in a stampede and seven other devotees were injured during the Rath Yatra in Puri.
In Bhubaneswar, two jawans of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) allegedly outraged the modesty of a woman reporter in front of the temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Nayapalli area.
When the cameraperson accompanying the reporter asked why they misbehaved with the reporter, about a dozen IRB personnel attacked him. He was seriously injured and rushed to a hospital where his condition was stated to be out of danger.
Jawans arrested
The two jawans who were trying to flee were arrested. They were identified as Narasingha Sahoo and Manoranjan Behera. A case in this regard has been lodged at the Nayapalli police station.
