No misconduct with President Kovind’s wife at Jagannath temple

Bhubaneswar:30/6/18; Amid roaring controversy over allegations that President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind were misbehaved with during their visit to Jagannath temple in Puri, the press secretary of the President has made it crystal clear that no such incident had happened.

Ashok Malik, the press secretary of the President, while speaking to India Today rebutted the reports that the Rashtrapati Bhavan has sent any such communiqué to Puri district administration.

Some media reports also claimed that the presidential secretariat lodged a formal complaint with local authorities about the alleged misbehavior of President Kovind and his wife on grounds of caste when they walked into the sanctum to have darshan of the deities in March. The news reports also claimed that the matter was discussed at a meeting of the temple managing committee.

“If anyone claims that any such letter was sent by us, they should produce it,” he emphasized. “No such letter has been sent by the president’s house and all the reports regarding it are mere speculation,” Malik told India Today.

However, he said some servitors had tried to breach security protocols to come closer to the president when he was at the temple. But they were stopped, he said. “There was nothing more to it and the matter ended there,” said the presidential spokesman.