Murders in the Prashanthi temple – reflections 2

The Indian press repeatedly described events, as best they were able to investigate them through eye-witnesses who were too frightened to stand forth with their names. Literally hundreds of articles were written in all as the press tried to do its duty to society. Sathya Sai Baba rubbished the entire press coverage and the journalists involved in his highly evasive 1993 Guru Purnima discourse, without explaining a single thing. However, he stated that the whole incident would only serve to increase his fame throughout the world! (Perhaps he was thinking of ‘notoriety’). The complaint to the Press Council by the AP journalists’ union had no appreciable effect. Sathya Sai Baba explained nothing that did not suit him, and that was very little, devious and confusing (see here).

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In the light of official documents alone, no one can seriously contest that the killing spree by police was followed by a totally botched police cover-up. It would have made truly divine comedy directed by a humorous God from on high… were it not for the fact that two valets were murdered and four servants of Sathya Sai Baba, who had been most devoted for many years, were executed one by one in cold blood in “the holy of holies”, Sathya Sai Baba ‘s bedroom. The police were blackmailed by Baba’s younger.

Sathya Sai's younger brother, Janaki Ramiah

brother Janakiramiah (then to become his right-hand man on the Sathya Sai Central Trust) also with the aid of other ashram and Trust officials. This is the truth as it was told to me by V. K. Narasimhan who was party to some of the the discussions between those involved afterwards. Those who want a fuller account of how the crucial facts were made known to me by V.K. Narasimhan (which facts I could for the sake of his own security not make known until after his decease – see my account here and notes I made after discussions with him here and here).

One answer to part of the enigma I tried to adopt was that Sathya Sai Baba has to allow human affairs to take their own course so as not to usurp their will. But this would not hold water in the long run. However, Sathya Sai Baba has repeatedly denied that human beings have any kind of ‘free will’ and that ‘only God (he means himself) has free will’. Though this alone literally amounts to his own self-condemnation, I do not accept this indefensible primitive doctrine and only blinded or indoctrinated devotees could manage to swallow it. I know that Sathya Sai Baba delegates responsibility to his workers, which can involve a considerable degree of own judgement and will power, which they may sometimes use wrongly.

As the undisputed ruler of Prashanthi Nilayam township and of his servitors and devotees who dare not go against his commands, Sathya Sai Baba must bear the overall responsibility for all of it, not least since he indicated in his discourse weeks after the event that he knew in advance the fate of his servitors and warned them too! Nothing can absolve him from having been complicit in cold-blooded murder. One person alleges

that Sathya Sai Baba , while avoiding the mob in the garage attached to the temple, was asked by officials what to do and told them to ‘do as they liked’. This is unconfirmed, but could well be correct. It has not been refuted – by any officials or Sathya Sai Baba himself. They keep as silent (like any Sicilian muerta) as the grave of their victims and hope all will eventually blow over.

Those who wish for a fuller, non-propaganda account of these events can go to: http://www.exbaba.com/assassinations.html

Resumé of some events and valid questions

The evidence suggests that the four bodies, allegedly found in Sai Baba’s bedroom (and photographed with little blood visible in unnatural positions in each their corner of it), were taken from an adjoining room where they had been shot and which contained pools of blood.

After the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi, and the prime ministers Indira Gandhi and later her son, Rajiv Gandhi, the killers were not automatically killed. The law was allowed to take its course and police acted bravely to take alive the killers they apprehended. However, Sai Baba issued a press statement that there was no attempt on his life. This contradicted the statement of the police inspector who penned the First Incident Report, and it also nullified the motive stated by the police for their shooting the four intruders. He refused to cooperate with any further inquiries by police or press, but discussed the matter in total secrecy with some of his staff, his younger brother Jankira Ramiah and many visiting high court judges and top politicians of the country.

In this situation, the police were almost powerless and intimidated into not questioning certain suspects or carrying out investigations with any kind of normal thoroughness. From studying official reports made by the police and the courts that were forced to deal with a number of pleas, the investigations were quite patently a complete travesty of police work, leaving almost nothing but loose ends, unquestioned eye-witnesses and a veritable rats’ nest of contradictory statements, doubtful and obviously concocted evidence.

Home Minister S.B. Chavan is reported to have said that Baba “scolded the persons creating the noise, bolting the door from the inside.” An official First Information Report (Annexure 144) reports Sai Baba shouting ‘Fools, get out’. The question is why Sathya Sai Baba did not intervene.

However, the Indian Express (13-6-1993) reported that a boy in is early teens – Subbappayya – who was in Sai Baba’s room when the assailants knocked saying there was a telegram for Sai Baba opened the door. They attempted to attack him, but the dagger only penetrated his shirt and he escaped unharmed. He bolted the door and alerted Baba to the impending danger.

However, writes the Express, “what sounds illogical is that if Subbappayya had closed the door and bolted it from behind, how could the alleged assailants enter Baba’s personal chambers after attacking the four guards

on the ground floor? There are no indications of the alleged assailants or somebody applying pressure on the doors to open them. The police have taken Subbapayya’s torn shirt into their possession… The investigating officers are tight-lipped to the question as to how the assailants could get into Baba’s chamber.”

The next great question is why was a young teenage boy in Sai Baba’s chambers at the time? Further, why did the ashram authorities hide him away and deny police access to him for giving evidence? Why did they do the same with the two injured Sevadal attendants who had been downstairs with Radhakrishnan, namely, Baba’s cook Vishnu Bhatt and the assistant Anil Patley? That the ashram authorities kept them away from any interrogation on various pretexts is not a fact disputed by any source.

Sai Baba on the morning after the murders near him

It seems that Sai Baba’s movements were as follows: EITHER down the rear staircase from his rooms to the kitchen entrance opposite the South Prashanthi blocks. Into the ladies entrance to the mandir and through it to the garage building (into what is sometimes known as the green room?) OR through a door onto the 1st floor behind the balcony and through to a room on the 1st floor of the . The first is the most likely, since there were reports that he had spoken briefly to persons outside the rear of the temple.

He was in any case guarded in a room not 30 yards from the scene of action while police conferred with ashram and central Trust authorities until the intruders were shot, some three hours later (according to foreign visitors who witnessed the sounds of the shooting spree in which 27 rounds were let off). The police claim the time of the shooting was at 10.30 p.m., but several devotees report having heard a siren at 10.30 p.m., followed by a gunshot. Who shot who then is an unanswered question. Then, much later, devotees heard a round of firing of at least 20 rounds at around 1.30 p.m.

A reader remarked in a letter to the Canara Times 5-7-1993. Gautama Buddha once told people not to accept anything without question, including his own teachings. In contrast we have a proven fraud and frequent prestidigitator – widely and most credibly accused of serial sexual abuses – calling himself God Almighty and his followers asking us not to question him.

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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization