Yoga guru & his followers arrested with over Rs 2 cr counterfeit money made using AI

The accused allegedly planned to circulate them "in order to provide financial assistance to the "ashram" named “Shri Satyam Yoga Foundation”.

Ahmedabad: A metropolitan court on Friday remanded a Gujarat-based yoga guru and his six followers to ten days of police custody. A day earlier, they were arrested for manufacturing and circulating counterfeit currency largely with the help of AI-based tools.

According to the police remand application, the yoga guru and his followers plotted to print fake currency and circulate them "in order to provide financial assistance to the "ashram" named “Shri Satyam Yoga Foundation”.

On Thursday, a team of Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) arrested yoga guru Pradip Jotangiya and his reported followers- Mukesh L Thummar, Ramesh V Bhalar, Divyesh Rana, Bharatbhai V Kakadiya and Aarti Sevaliya, all residents of Surat.

DCB officials said that the operation was based on specific intelligence which stated that a white SUV was transporting counterfeit currency in denomination of 500 notes from Surat to Ahmedabad. The suspected car was intercepted and the police team allegedly found a bag containing fake currencies.

During the investigation, 44,053 fake currency notes of the denomination of Rs 500 Indian (amounting to Rs. 2.38 crore) and other items were seized from the possession of the accused.

Interrogation of the accused allegedly revealed that Jotangiya was running an ashram under the name of “Shri Satyam Yoga Foundation” where he conducted yoga and meditation. Six others served at the ashram as his followers.

"Shri Satyam Yog Foundation does not have any permanent source of income, nor does it receive significant financial assistance from donors. In order to financially support the ashram, accused numbers one to six held a meeting about three months ago when they conspired and decided to manufacture counterfeit currency notes of Rs 500 denomination," police stated in the remand application.

The suspects searched the internet and purchased equipment to produce counterfeit notes, including color printers, cartridges, paper cutters, and specialized printing paper. After realizing that the quality of the paper was inadequate, one of the accused, Mukesh Thummar, searched online and allegedly ordered security thread paper from China. Subsequently, they produced the counterfeit notes and came to Ahmedabad to sell them when they were caught.

"It was revealed that digital tools including photo-editing software and AI-based platforms such as ChatGPT were used to refine the design, layout, and visual features of counterfeit notes," said Ajit Rajian, Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCB.