BHUBANESWAR: A local court here on Monday sentenced a sevayat of Lingaraj temple to one-and-a-half years rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing a Swedish national on February 19. The judgement came just 28 days after sevayat Kanan Mohapatra alias Kundu (22) was arrested for committing the crime.
Judicial Magistrate First Class-I Payal Gupta convicted Mohapatra under sections 341, 354 and 354A of IPC and sentenced him to 18 months in jail. “The court observed the matter was very sensitive and created a bad image of the state and the country. Around seven witnesses including two security staff of the temple and a lady police personnel were examined during the trial,” said additional public prosecutor Bijan Bihari Kar.
Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh said the matter was taken very seriously and Mohapatra was arrested on February 20. “The chargesheet in the case was filed on February 22 and the trial commenced four days later. The court awarded the sentence on Monday,” he said.
Sources said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had contacted the city police after the incident and inquired about the matter. Mohapatra has criminal antecedents and was arrested in July last year too for allegedly molesting a woman devotee.
Sevayat gets jail for harassing Swedish woman
Lingaraj police have asked various nijogs to avoid keeping sevayats known for their involvement in anti-social activities in the temple.
The woman had gone to the 11th century shrine where Mohapatra was present. He informed her that foreigners were not allowed to enter the temple. He then took the foreign tourist to an elevated viewing tower, named after Lord Curzon, near Uttar Dwar (north gate) of the temple and molested the lady on the pretext of blessing her. She had lodged a complaint on February 19, the day of the incident.
Sources said the woman had arrived in the capital city on February 13. She was a friend of a local studying in Sweden and had arrived here to meet him.