Dr. Naresh Bhatia’s exposure of Sathya Sai Baba

Dr. Naresh Bhatia, who for six years was the head of the blood bank of the Sai Super Speciality hospital, is quoted in The Findings, by the UK whistle-blower and exposé writer, David Bailey: “Three young students from Sai Baba’s junior male college were called for interview. One of them, a seven year old boy student, came out of the interview room crying. He continued to cry for two days, and was unable to eat or study. That evening Dr Bhatia, on duty in the children’s canteen, was asked to find the cause of the child’s distress. He questioned and then examined the child, and found that he had been sexually penetrated, via his anus. The child was taken to Bangalore and re-examined. A second medical opinion confirmed sexual abuse. Dr Bhatia had been involved in sexual activity with Sai Baba for six years, believing that he was serving divinity. He went to Sai Baba: “Why do you do this to such a young child when you have all of us adults and the older students to play with?” Sai Baba’s reply: “Don’t bargain with God!” Soon after, five men went to Dr Bhatia’s home, threatening his life with knives. He made his escape by car, fleeing to Delhi.” The author and journalist Mick Brown wrote about his visit to Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram and his meeting with V.K. Narasimhan in his perceptive and often critical book “The Spiritual Tourist” As a journalist, Mick Brown subsequently investigated some of the many allegations of sexual abuse made against Sai Baba, visiting the Rahm family in the USA and others in that pursuit of the truth. Brown wrote a major article in the Sunday Telegraph (12 November 2000 click here) summarizing what he characterised as ‘The Divine Downfall’. There he related that Bhatia resigned from his post at the hospital in December 1999 and is now an administrator at a hospital in New Delhi. and stated: “Contacted by phone, Bhatia said that he had become a devotee of Sai Baba in 1971, at the age of 20, and that he had sexual relations with Sai Baba for “15 or 16 years”. In that time, he said, he was also aware that Sai Baba had relations with “many, many” students from the college and school, and with devotees from overseas.”

The Sunday Telegraph article gained much prominence and was soon republished around the world in a number of prominent dailies in other languages. Thereafter Dr. Bhatia fell mysteriously silent. He has not been available to stand forth and repeat his allegations since.

Front cover of Bhatia's hagiography

Corrupt power removed Bhatia: This case illustrates the reach of Sai Baba’s worldly power in India that Bhatia can no longer repeat any of the massive allegations. He describes how his life was threatened at Puttaparthi by thugs and had to flee to Delhi, where he took employment as a doctor. Dr. Bhatia was one of the closest servitors of Sai Baba in the 1990s and was known to be so to all regular visitors to the ashrams. He was married with children and was a very frequent and very popular ‘lecturer’ at Prashanthi Nilayam – which is to say he would tell all about Sai Baba in the prevailing politically correct manner. He was held in very high esteem as such by many rather naive persons I knew, but I always avoided his ‘lectures’ as I had read his excessively naive and over-eulogising book ‘Dreams and realities face to face with God‘ and could not stomach such near-hysterical and flowery praises of Sai Baba. Nonetheless, his importance in the movement was such that drastic measures were taken to discredit him after he challenging Sai Baba. His book was immediately taken off sale at the Sathya Sai Baba Book & Publications Trust, and it was banned. The egocentric US publisher devotee, Jack Scher, a millionaire who had so to speak ‘bought into’ a veranda place by setting up a publishing co. for Sai books in the US called ‘Leela Press’ had to trash all his copies. V.K.Narasimhan was instructed to publish the disclaimer about Dr. Bhatia in Sanathana Sarathi.

In 1999/2000 a lady friend of ours – Anne-Irene – had close connections with ‘deep insiders’ at Prashanthi Nilayam, especially Mr.& Mrs. Ratan Lal and the US lady called Veronica who ran the foreigners’ canteen. Anne-Irene was present when Dr. Naresh Bhatia was discredited and made to leave his post as head of the Blood Donation Unit at Sathya Sai Baba’s big hospital in Puttaparti. She reported how rumours flew in all directions, as is always the case when such events occur at the Sai ashrams, for there is always a rigid clamp-down on anyone who knows facts from telling the truth. As usual, those unsupported rumours were set going and allowed to flourish with ‘no comments’… especially that Dr. Bhatia had been caught having sexual relations with nurses at the hospital, and that this had been going on with other young ladies over whom he was in a position of authority.

Bhatia has declared that he still recognizes Sai Baba as God, the major divine avatar of the present aeon… despite Bhatia’s testimony that Sai Baba is a serial and perverted abuser of young boys. Explain that whoever can! Dr. Bhatia was also contacted by investigators on behalf of the BBC in 2002 and I was told bt them that he had confirmed the original account about his dismissal, though he was not interviewed in the documentary ‘The Secret Swami’, which could only use one hour of footage out of 80 hours recorded around the world. Moreover, powerful Sai Baba interests with the support of government and police authorities have effectively silenced Dr. Bhatia.

IMPORTANT NOTE! However, Dr. Bhatia has provided extremely interesting accounts of his first and subsequent interviews with Sathya Sai Baba which anyone who has any common sense – and in view of Bhatia’s subsequent claims of years of sexual relations with SB – are nothing less than a description of “total surrender” body and soul along with his best friend Sarma. See scans of his very revealing account here.

Amusing footnote; It was suggested by the fanatical and unlikely defender of Sai Baba, Gerald Joe Moreno, that author and journalist Mick Brown could not have known whether it really was Dr. Naresh Bhatia to whom he spoke when he phoned the number given to him by a contact of Bhatia.  Moreno strongly implies that it was someone else who answered Mick Brown’s questions – presumably a “blatant, shameless liar” who wanted to smear Sai Baba who was happily on hand while Bhatia himself was presumably detained by his henchmen? Moreno sees blatant, shameless liars all over the place, presumably now also in Indian telephone exchanges… or what?

See full original posting of the Bhatia confrontation with SaiBaba on sekty.net Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization