Bhubaneswar sources have reported that famous sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik was hospitalized on after some unidentified youths had attacked him at the ongoing International Sand Art Festival in Odisha's Puri district.
According to sources Sudarsan suffered minor injuries after the youths tried to snatch the artist’s wrist watch on the pretext of a handshake. Meanwhile ToI quoted Patnaik as saying "The youth caught hold of his arm during a handshake and tried to snatch his wrist watch. When he tried to resist, he attacked him and disappeared into the crowd. He could not find the youth and even his students and friends tried to catch him, but failed".
Further Sudarsan is the brand ambassador for the
five day long International Sand Art Festival that started on December 1 near
the famous Sun Temple in Konark. Accordingly a total 70 participants are taking
part in the festival, where the participants have come from Germany, Mexico,
Ghana, Singapore, Canada, Spain, Sri Lanka, and Russia.
