The money was found last January during a police raid on the Karmapa’s monastery. It was in nearly two dozen currencies, and the Karmapa’s aides said it had been donated by his followers, who came from all over the world.
But the amount of cash, which included a large sum of Chinese yuan, concerned police, who said the sums were too large to be merely from donations.
The Karmapa, 26, is seen as one of the Dalai Lama’s potential successors as the leader of Tibetan Buddhism.
A spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile said he was sure no Indian laws had deliberately been broken.
“What resulted was due to negligence on part of the staff members of the Karmapa,” Thupten Samphal told The Associated Press. “It is also a case of ignorance of the Indian law. Now that the case is on, law should take its own course.”
While the Karmapa was charged with conspiracy and knowledge of undeclared money, the three followers face the additional charges of cheating and forgery of documents. If convicted, the Karmapa faces up to two years in prison, and his followers up to 10 years.
The Karmapa left Tibet in 2000. Since then, he has been living at the monastery in Sidhbari, just outside Dharmsala, which has been the headquarters of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile since the Dalai Lama fled the Himalayan region in 1959.