Fact Check: Video of cash found in car is from Chhattisgarh, not Ram Mandir theft case

New Delhi (Vishvas News). After a case was registered in the theft of offerings at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the matter. A total of eight accused have been arrested so far. Meanwhile, A viral social media post claims that a large amount of cash was recovered from the car of one of the accused. Police can be seen recovering a large amount of cash from a car in the viral video.

Vishvas News investigated the claim and found it to be misleading. The cases involving Avinash Shukla, one of the prime accused in the Ram Mandir offering theft case, is not related to the viral video showing cash recovery from a car. The viral video is from Chhattisgarh. This video has been circulating on social media since 2025 with claims of action taken in Chhattisgarh in a cash recovery case, whereas the FIR in the recent Ram Mandir offering theft case was registered on June 25, 2026.

It is noteworthy that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Uttar Pradesh Police is investigating the embezzlement of offerings made at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Eight accused have been arrested so far. One of the accused, Avinash Shukla, was found to have carried out financial transactions worth over 1.5 Lakh rupees. Many reports also allege that he gifted two lakh rupees in cash and an expensive mobile phone to a female friend.

What is viral?

Social media user ‘Raao Deepak’ shared the viral video (archive link ) on July 5, 2026, and wrote, “BJP people consider the donations made in the temple as their inheritance.”

Investigation

The viral post includes a video showing the seizure of cash with a ‘ABP News’ breaking news graphic. The video and the breaking news story are being shared together with the claim that they relate to the same incident. The ABP News graphic refers to money allegedly given to Avinash Shukla’ girlfriend. Shukla is an accused in the Ram Temple offering theft case. The video is being shared to show the seizure of a large amount of currency notes from a car. This creates a misleading impression that the cash seized is related to the same case.

A report by ‘ABP Live’, revealed details of financial transactions worth over ₹1.5 Lakh involving Avinash Shukla, an accused in the Ayodhya Ram Temple offering theft case. The report states, “Police are now investigating these transactions to determine if they are linked to the theft of offerings.”

According to the report, “The investigation revealed that Avinash had gifted a female friend approximately ₹2 lakh in cash and an expensive mobile phone. Police are now investigating the source of the money.”

Several other reports ( 1 , 2 ) also mention this incident. However, our search did not find any report mentioning that cash was recovered from the car of accused Avinash Shukla.

The FIR in the Ram Temple offering theft case has not yet been made public on the CCTNS portal. Vishvas News has the FIR, which names a total of following eight accused: 

Avinash Shukla
Anukalp Mishra
Luvkush Mishra
Manish Kumar Yadav
Karunesh Pandey
Ramashankar Mishra
Subhash Srivastava and
Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu.

The FIR has been registered under sections 305, 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5) 61, 3(5) of the Indian Penal Code and section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

‘The Hindu’ report states, “After registering an FIR in this case, the police took action, arrested all the eight named accused, sent them to judicial custody and recovered cash worth about Rs 79.85 lakh from them.”

We contacted Rama Sharan Awasthi, Editorial Director of our associate publication, Dainik Jagran, Ayodhya, regarding the viral video. He dismissed as false the claim that the viral video shows cash recovered from the accused in the Ram Temple offering theft case.

We also contacted independent journalist Abhishek Upadhyay regarding the viral video. He confirmed, “The video does not show the cash recovered from the accused in the Ram Temple offering theft case.” He added that eight accused have been named in the FIR and approximately 80 lakh rupees in cash has been recovered.

The Ayodhya Ram Temple offering theft case is being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government, along with the local police. The investigating officer in this case is Ayodhya Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Tiwari. Vishvas News has also contacted him regarding the viral video. This report will be updated upon receipt of his response.

We then traced the original source of the viral video showing the recovery of currency notes from the car. A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes revealed that it was uploaded to the social media handles of several news websites that claimed it was from Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

According to the ‘TV9 Bharatvarsh’ report (archive link ), “A massive sum of ₹1.66 crore in cash was recovered from a government official’s Innova car during an Enforcement Directorate (ED) operation in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh. Videos and photos of the incident have gone viral on social media, showing bundles of currency notes being removed from a specially built secret chamber inside the car.”

Several other reports (archive link ) also attribute this video to an incident in Chhattisgarh.

This video was shared on July 6, by the social media handles of ‘TV9 Bharatvarsh’ and ‘Bharat24 Live’, making it appear to be a video of a recent incident.

However, after our advanced search, we found this video shared on the official social media handle of ‘News18’ Himachal on November 26, 2025.

We also found a report by ‘ETV Bharat.com’ dated August 14, 2025 that mentioned a similar incident in Chhattisgarh. According to the report, “During a vehicle check, Khairagarh police inspected a vehicle at the Itwari Bazaar MCP point. A total of ₹4.4 crore (₹44 lakh) in cash was recovered from an SUV. When asked about the source of the cash, the vehicle owner was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation. The police then confiscated all the cash.”

The picture used in this report is of the same car which is seen in the viral video with the secret chamber.

It is noteworthy that an FIR in the Ayodhya Ram Temple offering theft case was registered on June 25, 2026.

According to the reports, the case was registered at the Ram Janmabhoomi police station in Ayodhya on the complaint of Krishna Mohan, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, following the preliminary findings of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government.

This means that the viral video is not related to this recent case, but it is an old video and has gone viral earlier with the claims of cash recovery in Chhattisgarh.

We contacted Dainik Jagran’s Raipur crime reporter Deepak Shukla, regarding the viral video. He confirmed that the video is from an earlier incident in which cash was seized during a vehicle check.

Another Raipur-based TV journalist, Satya Prakash, also said that the video was from an earlier incident. He added that no such incident has been reported in Raipur recently. Both the journalists attributed the incident to Khairagarh.

Vishvas News cannot independently verify the exact context of this video. However, our investigation confirms that it is not related to the recovery of cash from any of the accused arrested in the Ayodhya Ram Temple offering theft case.

What is the context?

According to news reports , police have registered an FIR after the theft of offerings at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and launched an investigation into the matter. Eight accused have been named in the case and all of them have been arrested.

After the matter became public and the controversy grew, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust General Secretary Champat Rai and Trustee Anil Mishra resigned from their posts.

The user who shared the misleading viral video is followed by around six thousand people on Facebook.

Conclusion: The claim that a large amount of cash was recovered from the car of one of the accused arrested in the Ayodhya Ram Temple offering theft case is misleading. The viral video of the cash recovered from a car is related to Enforcement Directorate operation in Chhattisgarh. It is now being falsely shared as footage of cash recovered from the accused arrested in the Ayodhya Ram Temple offering theft case.

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• Ram Mandir