BHUBANESWAR, ORISSA, INDIA, January 24, 2012 (Times of India): A 35-year-old Russian tourist here on Tuesday created quite a flutter after entering the 11th century Lingaraj temple that is off limits to non-Hindus. The tourist, who claimed to have converted to Hinduism in the past, identified himself as Sundar Gopal Das. Police are verifying the Russian’s passport to ascertain his identity. The name on his passport read as Skukhzat, sources said. Rituals at the temple were disrupted for nearly four hours following the foreigner’s entry. Priests performed a purification ritual and dumped the Lord’s cooked prasad worth above US$1,000, sources said. “We cleansed the temple as per tradition and dumped the prasad in a well as it was defiled following the unprecedented incident,” said Abanikant Pattnaik, temple’s executive officer.
Das, on the other hand, feigned ignorance about the shrine stricture. “I was ignorant about the prohibition on the entry of non-Hindus into the shrine. Nobody stopped me at the entrance,” the Russian told TOI. The Russian tourist was let off after routine verification. The Lingaraj temple was witness to a similar chaotic situation following the entry of a foreigner in September 2008. In another incident in March 2009, a Hindu NRI boy from Poland, Ryszard Ankur Ahuja was stopped from entering Lingaraj temple as he looked like a foreigner.