The managing trustee board meeting, held at the Vadtal temple premises in Kheda amid massive security and in the face of unprecedented heckling by a large number of villagers and devotees, condemned the involvement of those said to be involved in the reported murder of Gadadharanand, chairman of the board. The decision came after two hours' discussion.

Though not named by the investigating agency, Bhaktikishoredasji was removed from the post since two assistant kotharis and two other temple kotharis involved in the case were under him. They are Shrijicharan Shastri, Shrinarayan Swami, Madhavdas Swami and Gyanprakash Swami. While Shrinarayan Swami, along with one Vijay Bhagat, are under CBI remand, the others and a servant, ChimanParmar, are in judicial custody at Nadiad.

The new CEK is Narayanmuni Swami, Gyanprakash has been replaced by Krishnapriyadas (Neelamswami) as Mumbai kothari, Madhavdas by Jaiprakash Swami at Vallabh Vidyanagar. Trustees said no replacements were named for Shrijicharan, who did not have any official designation, and Shrinarayan.

The removal of Bhaktikishoredas is seen as significant because his own juniors, a couple of whom were incidentally his disciples, are among the main CBI suspects. The CEK's post is among the powerful positions in the trust, which controls all the temples falling under the Vadtal gaddi. However, the trustees maintain that he was removed on moral grounds as the incident took place during his tenure.

Trust members were divided over the appointment of the chairman of the trust, a post currently held by Hasmukh Patel in absence of the missing Gadadharanand. However, it was unanimously decided later to continue with him. The board also decided to be more vigilant in future toensure that the `right people' became members of the temple's governing body as well as temple kotharis.

Hasmukh Patel and board secretary Surendra Patel told The Indian Express that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and all decisions were unanimous. They claimed there was no hooting by either the devotees or villagers.

Meanwhile, a delegation of villagers submitted a memorandum to the trustees urging them to check occurrence of such incidents in the temple since it tarnished the name of Swaminarayan sect and the village.

The new functionaries will take office on May 1, Patel said.