Jaipur:
Abhey Singh, popularly known as IIT Baba after his brief moment in the sun of virality at the Maha Kumbh festival, is facing a case against him in Jaipur for allegedly carrying ‘ganja’ or marijuana. Mr Singh downplayed the seizure, saying it was just “prasad” – a religious offering.
IIT Baba, however, evaded arrest as he had the narcotic substance in a small quantity.
“(They found) ‘prasad’, ganja, from my possession… Every seer has this prasad. If it’s illegal, arrest seers who attended Maha Kumbh as they were having it there openly,” he told reporters.
The police’s version, however, adds a bizarre twist to the story. They revealed that they reached the self-styled seer’s hotel – Riddhi Siddhi Park Classic Hotel – after they got the information that he threatened to die by suicide on social media.
“When a team of police reached the hotel and asked the 35-year-old about his statement, he took a packet of ganja from his pocket and said, ‘I had consumed ganja. If I have given any information under its influence, then I don’t know anything’,” the police said in a statement.
The ganja packet, weighing 1.50 grams, was seized on the spot under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act). The matter is being investigated.
Mr Singh – who claims to be an aerospace engineer from IIT-Bombay – dismissed the ‘suicide’ claim by the police and said, “They came here (to his hotel) under the pretext of some bizarre case. They said someone told them I was going to die by suicide. But they came here and started doing something else only.”
Meanwhile, another video of him is going viral where he could be heard saying the First Information Report (FIR) “makes no sense”.
“They have registered a case. (They said) I cannot do this and that this is illegal. However, it makes no sense because if it was illegal, so many seer had this in front of so many people during Maha Kumbh. Will they arrest all of them now? That is open evidence,” he was heard saying in the video.
Recently, ‘IIT Baba’ hit headlines when he claimed that he was assaulted during a news debate programme of a private TV channel in Noida.
He also sat outside the police outpost in Sector 126. However, later, he withdrew the protest when police convinced him.
Bhupendra Singh, SHO at Sector 126 police station, said he was convinced and did not lodge the complaint further.
Earlier, Mr Singh was banned from the Juna Akhara camp at the Maha Kumbh, with its spokesperson describing him as an “educated lunatic” who “abused” his guru.
