Ahmedabad, Mar 20 Seven persons, including a Yoga teacher, held allegedly with fake Indian currency notes (FICN) with a face value of Rs 2.38 crore were remanded in 10-day police custody by a court in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, a police official said on Friday.
Yoga teacher Pradip Jotangiya, Mukesh Thummar, Ashok Mavani, Ramesh Bhalar, Divyesh Rana, Bharat Kakadiya and a woman were held after 42,000 fake notes of Rs 500 denomination were seized from a car, while another set of notes were recovered from a house in Surat, he said. Currency bundles were recovered from a black bag and concealed packaging inside a white SUV on Wednesday.
They were charged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 178 (counterfeiting currency-notes), 180 (possession of forged currency), 181 (having instruments to forge currency) and 61(2) dealing with criminal conspiracy, Ahmedabad Crime Branch Inspector SJ Jadeja said.
Police said accused Pradip Jotangiya, popularly known as Pradip Guruji, established Shri Satyam Yog Foundation in Kamrej in 2008 and the FICN plan was devised after it ran out of funds.
The accused, who were associated with the Yoga foundation, began printing counterfeit currency four months ago, an official said, adding that Jotangiya had also attempted suicide in 2018 over a financial dispute in Kamrej.
As per police, the racket was led by Mukesh Thummar, who arranged printers, paper cutting machines etc and had also procured security thread paper resembling RBI markings from Chinese sources through online platforms like Alibaba using digital payment gateways.
Incidentally, the SUV from which fake notes were seized had a 'VVIP' sticker as well as a plate with 'Shri Satyam Yog Foundation Recognized by Ayush Mantralay, Govt. of India' written on it.
