Pallegama Hemarathana is accused of abusing an 11-year-old girl in a Buddhist temple in 2022.

Sri Lanka’s Buddhist hierarchy has suspended a prominent senior monk accused of sexually abusing a child, in the religiously conservative nation’s highest-profile case involving a local clergyman.

In rare disciplinary action, 71-year-old Pallegama Hemarathana was stripped of his responsibilities on Saturday as the chief custodian of a highly venerated Ficus plant grown from a sapling of a tree believed to have sheltered the Buddha.

“The Council of Monks of the Malwatte Chapter decided today to suspend Ven. Hemarathana until the conclusion of the legal proceedings against him,” said a statement issued by the chief priests.

Police arrested Hemarathana on May 9 following allegations he sexually abused an 11-year-old girl in 2022 at the venerated Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi temple in Anuradhapura, 200km (125 miles) north of Colombo. Hemarathana was detained during his stay at a private hospital in the capital Colombo, where he had checked in for treatment as the criminal investigation progressed.

Authorities said the victim’s mother had also been arrested for aiding and abetting the monk.

Hemarathana has since been granted bail while a court has barred him from travelling abroad.

The temple draws thousands of people daily who pay homage at the tree Buddhists believe is closely connected to the same Ficus that sheltered the Buddha when he attained enlightenment.

Hemarathana’s suspension came on the same day Sri Lanka celebrated Vesak, the anniversary of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death.

There have been several cases of clergy abusing children in Sri Lanka, but Hemarathana is the most senior monk to be accused of such a crime.

Last month, 22 monks were arrested at Colombo’s international airport after 110kg (242lbs) of cannabis was found hidden in their bags, in what was the biggest drug smuggling discovery ever in the facility. The monks have remained in custody pending prosecution, but have not been suspended from the priesthood.