MORE CONCERNING THE 1993 MURDERS IN PRASHANTHI MANDIR
Two decades of experience of Sathya Sai Baba, mostly very positive, led me to believe that he could have had no part whatever in the six murders that were committed in June 1993. So unquestioning was my faith that I accepted what little was said about it by officials in the Sai movement and in a discourse by Sathya Sai Baba himself some weeks afterwards. I put them matter behind me... like almost everyone else in the Sai movement. I accepted, in the main, the mostly irrelevant statements he made in the admittedly vague and rambling discourse some weeks later on Guru Purnima day in July 1992. Even some of Dr. Michael Goldstein's emotional outbursts and unbalanced ramblings in his letter to Sai devotees seemed to make things seem somewhat like a divine enigma that we could not hope to understand. (But this ploy is often used by SB to avoid telling or explaining anything that does not suit him). The old excuse, 'only Swami knows the reason' soon clicked in with the followers. But then, I knew virtually nothing about the circumstances at that time, mostly only the carefully contrived bits of Sai Org. 'information' (cynical disinformation, actually).
Written instructions were sent out by leaders of the Sathya Sai Organisation (eg. Indulal Shah, Central Office and Michael Goldstein) not to question or discuss anything about the incident, but to ignore it and rather concentrate on oneself and one's own spiritual practice (i.e, based on the same principle as ever, namely: God does only what is good, any bad is done by us)! This is all very well, if you care nothing for the victims, the truth of the matter, justice or if one accepts the clumsy and despicable cover-up attempted by the ashram, the police, the Andhra Pradesh State authorities and the Indian Government (in the person of then Home Minister of the Indian Government, S.B. Chavan).
In 1995, at the 70th birthday celebrations, I began to hear about the whole episode from a high-standing Indian Administrative Service Vigilance Officer, whose close colleague had been personally involved in the early investigations. The entire account was so shocking and so many confusing points remained unanswered that it seemed impossible to evaluate what was false witness and what genuine, and to piece together the evidence so as to see who might be responsible and what motives the various involved persons could have had. I set about getting inside information from persons whose judgement and honesty I could really trust. This I collated with the many press reports. Eventually the invaluable book by B. Premanand (Murders in Sai Baba's Bedroom) provided a mass of documentary transcripts and other evidence which helped me to understand how massive the cover-up to protect Sathya Sai Baba and his brother was.
During the hours that passed while the four intruders who had killed Sathya Sai Baba 's two attendants were locked in his apartment, various persons reportedly visited Sathya Sai Baba in the garage annex to the temple. Witnesses reported seeing his younger brother Janakiramiah, Joga Rao enter and exit shortly before the shots from police rifles were heard by many residents and visitors. Were Janakiramiah, Jog Rao and Sathya Sai Baba just discussing the weather, or maybe Sathya Sai Baba was further repeating his compassionate teaching, 'Help ever, harm never' and "See no evil, hear no evil, do no evil"? Moreover, later informed by an elderly and devoted Bangalore businessman, a contractor who worked on the hall at Brindavan (whose name I withhold for his sake) and whose close relative and ashram resident he claimed was there at the time, that Sathya Sai Baba was standing for some time behind the Prashanti temple where some women devotees and a number of students who had heard the alarm bells in the police station arrived. The police staggered drunkenly onto the scene across the ashram wall only after a very long time. However, almost all other reports state that Baba went along the first floor balcony to a room near or within the garage annex, where he remained until the whole incident was over.
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 not appreciable effect. Sathya Sai Baba explained nothing.
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 by the police under blackmail pressure from his younger brother Janakiramiah (now Sathya Sai Baba 's right-hand man on the Central Trust) with the aid of other ashram and Trust officials. I swear by all the scriptures one cares to name that in my account of this I am speaking the truth as I know it. 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).
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. 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'. I do not accept this wholly indefensible primitive doctrine. 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. 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://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/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 offical 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.
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 mandir. The first is the most likely, since there were reports that he had spoken briefly to persons outside the rear of the mandir.
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 petty prestidigitator calling himself a saint and his followers asking us not to question him.
Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization ( or Spanish version PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)