A devotee died after falling ill in the long queue in front of the Lions Gate of Shri Jagannath temple while two others were injured in separate incidents in the pilgrim town of Orissa on Sunday,police said.
Shankar Rao 55 of IRC village,Bhubaneswar,fainted while proceeding in between the bamboo barricade put up on the Grand Road. He was immediately taken to the district headquarters hospital here and doctors declared him dead,hospital sources said adding the cause of the death was being ascertained.
Naveen returns without darshan
In a departure from practice,Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik,who offers prayers at Shri Jagannath temple on New Years day,on Sunday returned without having darshan soon after entering shrine premises. Patnaik stopped at the seventh step of the Baisi Pahacha 22 steps and prayed there.He then proceeded towards Swargadwar,the cremation ground,to pay homage to his father and former CM Biju Patnaik at his statue Biju Samadhi Pitha. Servitors said his leg injury may have caused him to stop.