Images of ₹500 currency bill showing Lord Ram and Ayodhya temple are digitally altered

What’s the claim?

Ahead of the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, social media users have shared images of ₹500 currency notes featuring the Hindu god Ram and the newly constructed temple with the claim that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will release the new bills on January 22. 

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the images (archived here) with the caption, “Just heard that new 500 Rupees note would be issued on 22nd Jan .. if that’s true it will be a dream come true .. Jai Shree Ram (sic).” Another user shared the images (archived here) with the caption, “Graduating From 'father of nation' to the 'lord of nation'! NEW Rs 500 NOTES WILL BE ISSUED ON 22/01/2024 (sic).” 

This claim implying that the images of Mahatma Gandhi and New Delhi’s iconic Red Fort on the ₹500 currency note will be replaced by Lord Ram and the Ayodhya temple is also popular on Facebook. Archived versions of such posts can be found here, here, and here.

Screenshot of the claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the RBI—which is the sole authority for issuing banknotes in India— is not replacing the images on the ₹500 currency bill. The viral photo used to spread this claim has been digitally manipulated. 

What did we find?

A close look at the purported new currency note shows several discrepancies that indicate its images have been digitally altered. In the photos, the area around Lord Ram as well as the temple appears blurry as if the original images on the currency note were blurred out and the images of Ram and the temple were superimposed. We could also see that while the rest of the note is a little blurry, the image of Ram and the text ‘Shree Ramachandra’ below it are a lot clearer—another indication that the images were digitally added to an existing image of the ₹500 bill.

Discrepancies in the viral images of the purported ₹500 currency note. (Source: X)

We also spotted a watermark that read “X raghunmurthy07” near the bottom left corner of the note’s image in some of the viral posts. We found that the X account “@raghunmurthy07” had responded to one such viral post claiming that they created the image of Ram on the ₹500 note. “Sir This photo was edited by me it's just my imagination please don't spread wrong information (sic),” the user wrote. Logically Facts reached out to the user who informed us that he “used PicsArt, Lightroom, and PixelLab” to create the viral images. He also shared multiple images with us showing the editing process.

Logically Facts found no credible news reports announcing the introduction of the new ₹500 currency notes with images of Lord Ram and the Ram Temple. The Reserve Bank of India’s official website has also not released any statement about the purported replacement of images of Mahatma Gandhi and the Red Fort on the ₹500 bills. Usually, major announcements like the introduction of new currency notes are published by the RBI on its official website, but the latest press statement ( released on January 16) was about “Money Market Operations.”

The 'Know Your Notes' section on the RBI website displaying the specifications of the ₹500 bills still shows Mahatma Gandhi's image on the front and the Red Fort on the back.

Screenshot from the official RBI website of the ₹500 bill specimen.  (Source: Reserve Bank of India) 

It should also be noted that official images released by the RBI have the number “000000” as the code on the currency note, whereas the viral image has the number “6CM 302 379” written on them, which indicates that this note is already in circulation, and not show a new bill to be launched by the central bank.

We reached out to Yogesh Dayal, chief general manager of RBI's communication department, who said the central bank was not aware of any development of a new currency note being launched. 

The verdict

Pictures of ₹500 currency notes with Lord Ram and the Ram Temple are fake. The RBI has made no official announcement regarding the purported change. Therefore we have marked this claim fake.

(Update: This fact-check has been updated to include a response from an official from RBI's communication department.)

(This story was flagged to us by ABP News.)