Khan was jailed in August this year, in the cipher case, which involved an alleged violation of the Official Secret Act. It was alleged that the cricketer-turned-politician disclosed a secret diplomatic cable sent by Pakistan’s Washington Embassy in March.

The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a string of political and legal battles ever since he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022.

The Supreme Court judges, in a written court order, said they could not find “sufficient incriminating material” which could establish that Khan leaked state secrets to benefit a foreign power.

The order said Khan’s release on bail “during the period of elections would ensure ‘genuine elections’ and thus enable the people to exercise the right to express their will effectively and meaningfully. There are no exceptional circumstances to decline the concession of bail.”

However, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said he remains incarcerated over numerous separate graft cases, with a scant chance that he will be released from prison to contest elections.

Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak said the state government’s “Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha” is another scheme to fool the people to grab votes.

Coming down heavily on Naveen Patnaik government over the issue, the PCC chief sought to know the status of several schemes launched by the BJD dispensation in the past.

While announcing the scheme with a sanctioned budget of Rs 4,000 crore to build rural infrastructure, the BJD government must tell people as to how long the scheme is going to last as many such proposals made in the past were short lived and are now forgotten, he said.

“Such schemes are announced by the BJD government before elections to fool people. However, the government forgets about these schemes after elections,” Pattanayak claimed.

The Congress leader further stated that by introducing the scheme to augment rural infrastructure the BJD government admits that no step had been taken by it earlier for the development of villages in the state.

While people are deprived of drinking water facilities, thousands of schools are functioning from dilapidated structures, he said, adding that vegetable prices have skyrocketed as the government failed to build cold storages.

However, people are not aware of the game plan of BJD and they will teach it a lesson in the next elections, the PCC chief added.

It may be noted here that the state Cabinet on Monday approved the proposal to modify “Ama Gaon Ama Bikash” into “Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha” with sanctioned budget of Rs 4,000 crore.

The new scheme would be effective from financial year 2023-24 for taking up measures to augment rural infrastructure leading to accelerated growth as well as to promote, preserve and protect Jagannath culture and tradition of the state.

The scheme aims at providing missing links to the existing small and essential projects and development of infrastructure. It plans to achieve empowerment of women and youth, bridge critical gap in education and provide digital and sports facilities.

There is budget provision of Rs 4000 crore under the scheme from the State Budget. The scheme will cover all Gram Panchayats in each block with entitlement of Rs 50 lakh. The project cost will be between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.

According to a statement given by the Odisha government in the Assembly, the Ratna Bhandar was last opened in 1985 but the latest inventories of the valuables were made in 1978.

Until 1985, nobody had seen the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar, which was divided into two parts. The outer chamber is regularly opened and ornaments are taken out by the priests on festivals.

As per an order of the Orissa High Court, there was an attempt made to open the inner chamber of the Ratna Bhandar on April 4, 2018. But it could not be opened as the temple administration could not find the keys. The officials, servitors and experts, who went inside the Ratna Bhandar, had to return from the outer chamber.

But the administration did not make it public that the key was missing until the matter was raised in the managing committee meeting two days after the attempts were made to open the Ratna Bhandar.

Interestingly, after some days, following a hue and cry, all of a sudden the Puri district administration claimed that a duplicate key of the Ratna Bhandar was available. Where did the duplicate come from and where has the original key gone? It created a lot of confusion among Lord Jagannath’s devotees across the country.

Later, the Justice Raghubir Das Inquiry Commission on the Ratna Bhandar was set up and Justice Das had submitted the final report to the state government in November, 2018. The Commission report has not yet been placed in the Assembly.

With this background, there has been a demand for reopening the Ratna Bhandar for a long time. During his visit to Odisha in December last year, BJP national president J.P. Nadda had raised the issue and targeted the BJD government. He had asked about the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar of the Jagannath temple. The BJP chief had also alleged that the BJD government had failed to protect the valuable gems and assets of Mahaprabhu Jagannath.

On different occasions, the party has demanded the reopening of the Ratna Bhandar, which is also reportedly in need of some repairs. Not only the BJP, several opposition parties including the Congress, Puri King Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb and many senior servitors of Puri temple have also urged the Odisha government to reopen the Ratna Bhandar, and undertake the repairing work and inventory of the valuables of Lord Jagannath.

Chhattisgarh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan has also demanded reopening of the treasure of the temple. However, the state government did not pay any heed to the demand.

With no option in hand, the BJP knocked at the doors of the Orissa High Court very recently. Admitting a petition filed by the former president of the Odisha BJP Samir Mohanty, the High Court, on July 5 served notices to four persons on the opening of the Ratna Bhandar of the Shree Jagannath temple.

“Though 45 years have passed, the government has not reopened the Ratna Bhandar. When the Puri king and Jagannath devotees across the world are waiting to know whether the valuables of Jagannath are safe in Ratna Bhandar, the government is in deep sleep,” alleged Mohanty.

The BJP leader said he has moved the HC and the court has taken it seriously. The next hearing is set for August 7.

When media persons recently asked about reopening of the Ratna Bhandar, Law Minister Jagannath Saraka said, “We do not know whether the keys of Ratna Bhandar have gone missing or not. The matter is now before the Orissa High Court. The state government will take necessary steps after examining different aspects as per the directive of the court.”

In 2021 then law minister Pratap Jena informed the Assembly that the Ratna Bhandar was opened in 1978. At that time, it had more than 12,831 ‘bhari’ of gold and 22,153 ‘bhari’ silver (one bhari equals 11.66 grams).

The storehouse had 12,831 grams of gold ornaments with expensive stones and other valuables. Similarly, 22,153 grams of silver with expensive stones, silver utensils and other valuables were found.

However, 14 gold and silver items could not be weighed during the inventory process for various reasons. During the process, the value of the items was not assessed, the Minister had said in his written statement.