Bhaktiswarup, a priest belonging to the Junagadh Swaminarayan temple who has been arrested in a sex scandal involving sadhus of the Vadtal religious sect, was on Monday dismissed from the sect.

The decision to remove the priest, who is in police custody, was taken at a meeting of all the nine trustees. Its chairman Devnandan Das moved the resolution to remove Bhaktiswarup. The sect's highest priest, Acharya Rakesh Prasad, also backed the decision, temple authorities told PTI.

The trustees also decided to remove all luxury items from the rooms/houses of sadhus of the sect, monitor their bank balances and also punish those found violating the guidelines laid out for them.

In another major decision, the trustees also decided that henceforth sadhus would not be allowed to make administrative decisions.

Bhaktiswarup and three agents were arrested on February 14 under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act for making videos of wild sexual acts and distributing it in the form of CDs.