VARANASI: A priest of the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple here has been suspended by the temple administration after he was caught on CCTV allegedly taking away money offered by devotees as offering to the deity.
Chief Executive Officer of Kashi Vishwanath temple, Ajay Kumar Awasthi, suspended priest Ganpat Jha yesterday after he was seen carrying the money offered by devotees with him instead of dropping them in the temple's cash box.
The temple administration also gave a written complaint at Chowk police station. "The temple administration while perusing the CCTV footage found that the priest on July 31 during his duty inside the sanctum-sanctorum of the temple was allegedly appeared keeping the money offered by devotees in his pocket instead of dropping the offerings into the temple's cash box," said Ashok Kumar Singh, SHO of Chowk police station.
"We are carrying out the analysis of the CCTV footage and after that action will be taken against the priest," said Singh. However, the priest has denied the charges levelled against him and said that he was intentionally being targeted.