By IANS
Patna : Buddhist monks have demanded the arrest of top officials of the Bodh Gaya temple for allegedly chopping off a branch of the revered Bodhi tree for selling abroad after a government report indicted the officials for the crime.
Magadh Division Commissioner K.P. Ramaiah Monday submitted his report in a Gaya court finding guilty three top officials of the temple – Bodh Gaya temple chief priest Bhahadant Bodhipal, ex-officio secretary of Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BMTC) Kalicharan Yadav and Public Relations Office Bhajju Yadav.
Bhadant Anand, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Bhikkhu Mahasangh (All India Monks Association), demanded the arrest of the officials for cutting a branch of the tree, believed to be the one under which the Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago.
He warned that Buddhists would resort to protests unless the three were arrested.
“It is now official that a branch of the Bodhi tree was chopped off for earning dollars, and the three top officials found guilty should be put behind the bars,” Bhadant Anand told IANS here Tuesday.
He said the Ramaiah report vindicated allegations by Buddhists that one of their most sacred religious symbols – the Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, about 110 km from here, had a branch cut off.
Ramaiah had been directed by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gaya, Yamuna Prasad to probe the circumstances under which a branch of the tree was chopped off.
Ramaiah, while stating that the charges against three top officials were found to be true, also recommended a probe into their personal wealth.
In October, the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI) had in a detailed report submitted to the Bihar government, said a branch of the Bodhi tree was cut three years ago.
In June, the state government had ordered an inquiry by a team of FRI scientists after a monk, Arup Brahmachari, filed a criminal complaint against officials of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee.
It was widely reported in July last year that some miscreants had cut off a branch of the Bodhi tree but the Nitish Kumar government was quick to issue a denial.
However, after a worldwide hue and cry over the incident, the Bihar government got samples collected from the affected part of the tree and sent it to a Pune-based laboratory to ascertain the truth. The laboratory report is yet to be made public.
Anand alleged that the Ramaiah report also exposed the role of the state government, which said that no branch was cut off.
Brahamchari had provided evidence, including eight photographs, in support of his complaint, which was supported by an affidavit by Deepak Malakar, a gardener who used to look after the Bodhi tree.
In his affidavit, Malakar claimed that he cut off a branch of the tree on July 10, 2006, on an order by Bahadant Bodhi Pal, the temple chief priest, and carried it to his residence.
Brahmachari has accused top temple officials, including the ex-officio chairman, secretary Kalicharan Yadav, chief priest Bahadant Bodhipal and Gaya district magistrate Jitendra Srivastava of trying to tamper with Malakar’s affidavit.
However, Ramaiah has given a clean chit to the Gaya district magistrate, who is the ex-officio chairman of the BTMC, saying he occupied only an “ornamental” post to whom “no direct liability should be charged”.
The Bodhi tree saw new leaves after four years last year.
An official of the Mahabodhi temple, which the Unesco has declared a World Heritage Site, said the Bodhi tree is the sixth regeneration of the original banyan tree.