Bhubaneswar: The tales regarding the presence of multiple tunnels at the inner chamber of Jagannath temple Ratna Bhandar at Odisha’s Puri town turned out to be a myth as an 11-member committee that reopened the treasury did not come across any such secret paths today.

This was revealed by former Orissa High Court Justice Biswanath Rath, the chief of the committee, soon after they came out of the shrine in the evening.

The authorities of Jagannath temple and the committee reopened the inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar and shifted the ornaments and other valuables to a temporary strongroom on the shrine premises.

“We shifted all ornaments and valuables stored at the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar to a temporary strongroom on the shrine premises. The precious metals were stored in wooden boxes and almirahs at the inner chamber. While shifting the ornaments, we did not come across any secret tunnel at the temple treasury,” said Justice Rath.

Justice Rath revealed that they had videographed the structure of inner chamber of Ratna Bhandar. “We did not found any secret tunnel at the inner chamber of the temple treasury. We request the media people and Youtubers not to spread any fictitious information regarding Ratna Bhandar,” he added.

Justice Rath further said they would request the state government to go for a laser scanning of the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar.

After a gap of 46 years, the temple treasury was reopened for repair and inventory work on July 14.