Abhey Singh, better known as “IIT Baba,” has landed in controversy once again.

The self-styled spiritual leader, who shot to social media fame during Mahakumbh 2025, was reportedly detained by Jaipur police for possession of marijuana on Monday.

Media reports suggested he was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. But Singh had a different version: “Fake news,” he told PTI Videos, insisting he was neither arrested nor jailed.

According to reports, Singh was picked up from Classic Hotel near Riddhi Siddhi Park in Jaipur after he allegedly threatened suicide on social media. A team from the Shipra Path police station reportedly took him into custody, where they also allegedly found him in possession of ganja.

In a video statement to PTI, he dismissed it all.

“There are three-four fake news: one is of suicide, second is of my detention. The only truth in it is that bail was granted then and there... since the case [possession of substance] was small.”

So, was he actually arrested? Singh maintains that he wasn’t, though he did not explain how he got bail if he was not arrested.

Shiprapath SHO Rajendra Kumar Godara said the police received information about a video purporting to show Singh threatening to commit suicide becoming widely circulated on social media.

Acting on the information, the police reached the spot and questioned Singh. During the questioning, a small quantity of ganja was found with him, Godara said.

The police seized the ganja and arrested Singh, he added.

Singh was (really) later released on bail.

This was quite a chaotic year for the aerospace engineer turned Baba.

This isn’t the first time Singh has been at the center of a storm. Just days before his detention, he alleged that he was attacked on a news debate show in Noida. He claimed that saffron-clad men stormed into the newsroom and beat him with sticks.

Before that, during the Mahakumbh, he was reportedly banned from the Juna Akhara for using abusive language against his guru, Mahant Someshwar Puri.

But a Juna Akhara member denied any official association with him, telling NDTV, “He was defaming us. He was a vagabond, not a sadhu. He used to say anything on TV. He was thrown out.”

Singh’s rise to spiritual prominence has been very unconventional.

A former aerospace engineering student from IIT Bombay, he claims his journey into spirituality was not a choice but a natural “rujhaan” (inclination). In an interview with ANI, he explained that while engineering sharpened his logic, spirituality shaped his emotional intelligence.

Most recently, he faced backlash for predicting India’s loss against Pakistan in a cricket match.

The backlash only intensified after India won.

IIT Baba seems unbothered by the controversies. He has laughed off weed charges earlier and he did that once again.

Whether the law agrees is another matter.