Varanasi, Jun 10 (PTI) As many as 21 individuals posing as priests at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple were arrested for allegedly extorting money from devotees under the pretext of facilitating temple rituals, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

Several complaints were made over the past several days about unauthorised individuals taking money and misbehaving with visitors in the name of arranging darshan and puja at the temple, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dashashwamedh Atul Anjan Tripathi said.

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Acting on these complaints, a joint team of the Dashashwamedh and Chowk police stations was formed, Tripathi added.

Based on their investigation, 15 fake priests were apprehended from the Dashashwamedh area and six from Chowk.

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Legal proceedings against the accused are underway.

The ACP assured that the team would continue to take action against such individuals operating in and around the temple premises.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)