BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch of State police on Tuesday began its probe into the purported pictures of Brahma (soul) and patali (burial) rituals of old idols of the deities in circulation on social media.
The Crime Branch has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of three officers and has begun its investigations, Additional Director General of Police (Crime Branch) B K Sharma told reporters here.
“We have started our investigation. We are going to consult IT experts to get to the root of circulation of the pictures,” Sharma said.
The SIT will soon consult the law enforcement team of social networking sites like Facebook to ascertain the origin of the pictures which the temple administration has claimed to be fake.
The temple administration, in its letter to the Crime Branch on Monday, requested for a thorough investigation into the issue.
The SJTA on Monday said the photograph portrayed as ‘Brahma’ was uploaded in a video titled ‘Matsya Shaligram’ on youtube.com four years back on October 14, 2011. This photograph was posted on social media by one Himanshu Singhal.
“This Shaligram is not the actual Brahma of Lord Jagannath. Therefore, devotees should not allow themselves to be tricked into believing that the photograph depicted as Brahma in both social and mainstream media is genuine,” the SJTA release said.
The temple administration has once again appealed to the devotees of Lord Jagannath not to believe the purported picture of the Brahma being circulated in the social media.
Suspended Daitapati Jaykrushna Dasmahapatra had claimed that several servitors had carried mobile phones to the temple during the Brahma Parivartan. The circulation of pictures of the purported Brahma and patali rituals in social media gave rise to speculations that the photos of the secret rituals were taken on mobiles by some servitors.