In an incident of suspected heart attack, an Additional District Collector collapsed while singing on a stage in Odisha's Gajapati on Wednesday night.
The senior bureaucrat, Birendra Das, was reportedly singing a Jagannath bhajan at the Brundaban palace in Paralakhemundi where a dinner party was organised when the tragedy occurred.
In the purported video of the incident which is now going viral on social media, Das can be seen standing and singing on the stage before he loses his balance and trips to fall on the stage.
Watch the video here:
As per reports, soon after the incident, the officer was rushed to Paralakhemundi District Headquarters Hospital from where he was shifted to Berhampur MKCG Medical College and Hospital after his condition worsened.
After he arrived at the MKCG hospital, doctors declared him dead. However, the exact reason for the death is yet to be ascertained.
After Das's demise, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi expressed deep grief over the tragic incident. He stated that Das was an excellent bureaucrat who always worked for the welfare of common people.
Panel formed to probe falling of Lord Balabhadra idol on servitors during Rath Yatra ritual
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Puri's Jagannath temple has formed a three-member panel to probe the falling of Lord Balabhadra idol on some servitors while it was being taken from the chariot to Gundicha temple as part of the Rath Yatra festival, an official said.
The committee has expressed concern over the incident during the 'Pahandi' ritual on Tuesday night and also held a detailed discussion on the incident, said V V Yadav, chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in Puri.
The three-member panel consisting of an additional district magistrate (ADM), SJTA administrator (development), and a DSP rank police officer will investigate the matter and submit a report within 10 days after completion of 'Niladri Bije' (return of Lord Jagannath and his siblings to their temple), he said.
The committee will examine the available video footage and see whether designated servitors were there or not along with other aspects that led to such an incident, Yadav told reporters.
The chief administrator also said that the managing committee has also recommended the Odisha government to reopen Ratna Bhandar (treasury) of the Jagannath temple for inventory and repair works.
A dozen servitors of the Puri Jagannath temple were injured on Tuesday when the idol of Lord Balabhadra fell on them while it was being taken from the chariot to Gundicha temple as part of the Rath Yatra festival, Puri Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain said.
The incident happened shortly after 9 pm when the heavy wooden idol was being brought down from Lord Balabhadra's chariot to be taken to the Gundicha temple. Out of the 12 injured servitors, only one person has been shifted to a health facility for observation only, Swain said.
