A complaint was registered with Varachha police station in Surat against JK Swami and two other middlemen in an alleged fraud over 700 bigha land for a temple, worth ₹1.34 crore.

Surat-based Dr Balkrishna Hadiya (42) met Suresh Ghori at an event in 2015. Hadiya and Ghori became friends, and it was in 2016 that the latter pitched an offer to Hadiya.

Ghori had informed Hadiya about Junagadh Swaminarayan Temple’s JK Swami, and his plans to build a temple on the banks of Sabarmati at Rinza village in Tarapur taluka, Anand.

The project was similar to Poicha’s famous Swaminarayan Temple, for which JK Swami was supposedly looking for land and needed middlemen to invest in it.

“He never deals directly,” claimed Ghori in front of Hadiya.

Hadiya, along with his cousin Ketan, decided to invest in the land in March 2016.

Ghori now introduced Snehal to the investors, who pitched and presented the entire plan of the temple.

Then came Suresh Bharwad, who asked the Hadiya brothers to pay for 700 bighas of land bought from different farmers.

He promised to initiate the documentation of the land after getting the full payment.

Finally, JK Swami met the Hadiya brothers for the first time on the Chotila-Limbdi Highway.

The Hadiya brothers invested ₹1 crore and bought the land. They were promised the payment once the money would be poured in from Canada.

Swami opened a current account under the name of Dr Hadiya, claiming that the payment for land would be received from Canada. 

He also claimed that $1,480,350 had been transferred from the Royal Bank of Canada in Canada, but there was a problem with the KYC (Know Your Customer).

In the deal of ₹1.70 crore, the Hadiya brothers were only reimbursed ₹36.75 lakh.

The Hadiya brothers tried to recover money from Swami but only received ₹5 lakh through angadia.

As a result, they filed a complaint against:

JK Swami of Junagadh Swaminarayan Temple

Snehal, Swami’s accountant

Suresh Ghori, a resident of Varachha 

Suresh Bharwad, resident of Chandlodiya, Ahmedabad

Atul Sangani, Swami’s brother

Vivek and Darshan Shah, residents of Delhi

Notably, when JK Swami’s land-related deal came to light, priests of Junagadh Swaminarayan Temple suspended him from the temple, revealed sources close to the development.

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