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Murder at the Ashram

by Hari Sampath

On June 6th 1993, four men, by name, Suresh Prabhu Shantharam, Suresh Kumar, Jagannadham and Sairam, all students or former students in some way at the Sai Baba college, entered the chambers of Sai Baba forcibly, in an apparent attempt to attack and kill Sai Baba.

Sai Baba's personal assistant and driver Radhakrishnan and Sai Kumar Mahajan, an MBA student from Sri Lanka, who was living in the room next to Sai Baba also tried to stop them. They both were attacked by the four persons with knives and swords and sustained serious injuries. A 14 year old boy who was in Sai Baba's room at that time rushed to tell Sai Baba about it. At this time Sai Baba's cook Vishnu Bhat and another young man called Anil Patel also tried to stop the four and were hurt in the process.

By this time, the four people managed to go upstairs where Sai Baba's room was located. Sai Baba , meanwhile had slipped out of his room, and after activating the alarm system, went to the door at the eastern end of the mandir, and came down by the stairway to the garage. The four men, upon hearing the alarm locked themselves up in Sai Baba's room.

In hearing the alarm, hundreds of Ashram residents, people from the village, and others , rushed to the mandir, and gathered outside. Armed with swords, sticks , clubs and knives, around 50-60 persons climbed the walls of the mandir from the western side and went upstairs.

The 60 strong crowd saw that Sai Baba's room was locked from inside and did not know where Sai Baba was . Jankiram, a lecturer in the college asked the four where Sai Baba was and asked them to open the door. As the four people did not open the door, it was broken down. The four persons told a strange story: They said they had received reliable information that there would be an attempt to kidnap Sai Baba and they were trying to warn and protect Sai Baba and WERE NOT INTENDING TO HARM HIM .

NOTE : According to the police version they were shot when they tried to attack the police. As the police were nowhere there at that time, and also, no one KNEW where Sai Baba was at that time. For all they knew, Sai Baba MIGHT have been held captive inside the room by the four persons and so they CANNOT RISK SHOOTING OR ATTACKING THE FOUR.

To continue, the four people did not resist the crowd and were overpowered and tied up with ropes. Meanwhile the 14 year old boy revealed where Sai Baba was, and many members of the crowd went to the garage, and saw Sai Baba. The news of Radhakrishna and Sai Kumar Mahajan having died was brought to Sai Baba. The tied up four were being interrogated by others for quite some time, and when Sai Baba was asked what to do with them he said "do whatever you want, do not involve me", upon which the crowd fell upon the tied up four and clubbed them to death using sticks and knives. There were photographs in a lot of regional papers that showed the blood stained bodies of the four with cut injuries, and a lot of broken and blood stained ropes.

Sai Baba , then sent for Gangadhar Reddy, the circle inspector of Puttaparthi, who had come quite late after all this had happened. Along with another police constable, bullets were pumped into the dead bodies of the four a long time after they were killed by the crowd. No post mortem was done, as it would have easily revealed the cause of death was NOT BULLET INJURIES. The case was hushed up, the records manipulated, and later Gangadhar Reddy , who was placed under suspension by the police department , resigned the police force and joined Sai Baba's org.

I was a member of the Ashram intelligence staff and security at that time. I WAS NOT IN PUTTAPARTHI ON JUNE 6th 1993, but rushed there in a couple of days, thinking I might be needed, after hearing the news. ALL that I have said above is what I gathered in course of my questioning people all around who were there. And EVERYONE in the village knows what really happened.