EXCERPTS FROM B. PREMANAND'S BOOK  "MURDERS IN SB's BEDROOM"

Whole family suicide at Prashanthi Nilayam 4-12-1998. In a hotel near the Satya Sai Airport, Ramesh aged 42, a multimillionaire industrialist in Tiruchirappally, owner of RMH Corporation, was found dead with seven other family members lying unconscious on the floor frothing at the mouth beside his daughter who already died of a brain tumour the day before. Six died within the day, while one person survived (Shankar). The police concluded that the whole family committed suicide because of the daughter's death and the shock this was to their faith in Sai Baba, who they had expected to save her. There was a suicide note: "God has forsaken us. I had great affection and love for my daughter. So we are going to the place where she has gone. No one is responsible for our death. I myself have influenced all the members to commit suicide to become one with Sai Baba. We are offering ourselves at his feet. All our properties have to be transferred to the Satya Sai Trust. The shradda ceremony should be done by my friend Ramakrishnan."

Sai Baba and 'liquor barons'

Sai Baba was photographed blessing the opening of the Mallya Apollo Hospital. The 'liquor baron' Vijay Mallya is the owner of United Breweries. He took control of the hospital from Dr. Pratap Reddy, the founder of Apollo Group of Hospitals.

Mr. Reddy of Madras was a 'liquor baron', known for criminal activities. Sai Baba visited this man in his own house in Madras, taking with him V.K. Narasimhan by car. Reddy told Baba he wanted to 'get out of it all' closing down his business. He also donated a large sum to Baba's Trust Fund.

Six weeks later, the news arrived that Mr. Reddy had been shot down and killed on the street in Madras by rival criminals. -------

The Hindu 20-10-1990 Two Women Die as Dome Collapses

Two Americans, Mrs. John Brown Hebel (45) and Mrs. Air Bonnie Lynni Mainaric (43), belonging to San Francisco were killed on Friday when the dome (kalasam) over the central gopurasm of sanathana samskriti (eternal heritage) museum building under construction at Prashanthinilayam collapsed.

Designed by Bombay architects Godbole and Co and the designer Mr. Pande. The framework of the gopuram was done by engineering contractors Larsen and Toubro Ltd., under the personal supervision of Ramachandran, a stapathi of Tamil Nadu.

A tremor was felt and 60 odd workers were asked to descend and leave the building. Added to this were heavy rain, with thunder and lightning.

The Anantapur Collector, Mr. B. Rama Rao has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the incident.

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The Week 18-7-1993 (A. Ram Baba in Hyderabad)

In 1985, the district police filed a case of attempted murder on Baba by a Canadian national named Graham Erich Griffin, a Christian fanatic. The case had been played down deliberately to avoid wide publicity so as not to affect the image of the ashram. During a visit to Anantapur in the wake of June 6 incident in Puttaparthi, a high-ranking police official confirmed that the Government withdrew the case as it was under investigation in a Penakondu court. It is still a mystery why the Government ordered the forcible deportation of the Canadian and closure of the case. The perplexing side is that when Griffin refused to be sent back, the Government sanctioned Rs. 15,000.- towards his travel expenses and got him deported forcibly.

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The Sathya Sai Airport is of private character, cost one and a half billion rupees and was constructed and paid for by the Indian Airport Authority. It is hardly used at all, and was not used for paying passengers at all during the first few years of its existence.

In the petition by Shri K.N. Balgopal 23-2-1994 before Hon. Justice Ramakrishna Raju, the following facts were stated:-

From the Annexure, page 48,: "An Australian lady, who was also a member of the trust (belonging to the faction of the ousted secretary of the trust) was murdered in her room in Prashanthi Nilayam seven months ago but the entire incident was hushed up.

On page 143, it is further stated: Accusing the trust members of misusing funds and indulging in illegal activities, the two suspects have alleged that son-in-law of a trust member who owns a hotel in Puttaparthi which has become a centre of such activities and Satya Sai Baba himself has advised some of his devotees not to stay in that hotel.

They have also alleged that some trust members were using local thugs to murder foreign devotees and burn the face of the dead bodies beyond recognition. A foreigner was raped at the ashram by a trust member, but the police hushed up the case, they contended."

Sai Baba's followers:

In Politics: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister R.K. Advani, Ex-P.M. P.V. Narasimha Rao, Ex-President Shankar Dayal Sharma, Ex-president R. Venkjataraman. Ex-Home Minister S.B. Chavan, Ex-minister B. Shankaranand, Ex-president of Sri Lanka Ranasingha Premadasa, Sri Lankan politician Lalit Athulatmudali. (Plus P.M.s of Fiji, Mauritius, Greece and Italy) The deceased King and Queen of Nepal.

Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil, Industry Minister Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, Agric. Minister Balram Jhakar, A.P. Gogvernor Krishna Kant, Rajasthan Governor Channa reddy, A.P. Chief Minister Janardhan Reddy, Karnataka Chief Ministers Sarekoppa Bangarappa and M. Veerappa Moily, plus Air Chief Marshal N.C. Suri.

Famous entertainers: Pandit Ravi Shankar (sitar), M.S. Subbulakshmi and Anupjalota (female singers) Shiv Kumar Sharma (santoor), Maynard Ferguson (Canadian jazz trumpeter),

Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar (top world cricket stars), Manoj Kumar (ex-film star)

Other famous names: S. Bhagavantham ('Father of India's atomic bomb'. M.C. Modi (world famous eye surgeon), V.K. Narasimhan (Editor-in-Chief Express newspapers), Ramnath Goenka (Press owner), R.A. Bendra (award-winning poet), Vijal Mallya, Nani Palkhivala

From the Judiciary Former Chief Justice of India P.N. Bagawati is close to Sai Baba.

By 1995, it was possible to list more than 55 judges in the Supreme Court, high courts, chief justices, chairmen of various commissions who were Sai Baba devotees. This is is addition to Presidents, Prime Ministers, senior ministers, bureaucrats, scientists etc. who accept Sai Baba's unconstitutional authority.

Supreme Court judges G.F. Ray and Jagannatha Rao visited Sai Baba after the birthday celebrations of 23-11-1998.

Other famous visitors: The ex-PMs Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Chandra Shekar. The Duchess of York ('Fergie'). George Harrison, Stephen Segal (US film star). Arjun Singh, Chandra Swami, Ashok Singhal, Rajesh Pilot.

Shakti Pat Guru is the Japanese terminology for Tantrik Sadhana, Hindu, Tibetan and Japanese. The notorious 'Om' cult of Caigauo Matsumoto was such. But the guru Toji Takahashi, also a Shakti Pat guru, had no association whatever with this. Members of their cult had reportedly already been very invasive at Sai centres in Mexico and Madrid!

They came to Puttaparthi May, 1996 in the heat after Baba had left. There were 29 names in all registered by the police. The guru conducted all-night training classes (outside the ashram). They stayed some time before leaving, returning at the end of June 1996, when they spent 10/15 very quiet days praying and preparing for a full-fledged office in Puttaparthi… phones, fax, copier, vehicle etc. Their third visit was in mid-Sept. 1996, when they claimed that their guru has been given powers by Sai Baba - he was the only exception to the rule.

The guru was supposedly in continuous mental contact with Baba, and had immense powers of healing. One patient with heart trouble he could not heal, so they brought the patient for Baba to give a 'new heart'.

The guru began to conduct interviews. They picked up interviewees in Puttaparthi and near the SS Hospital. They used two video cameras to be able to edit the interviews in a way favourable to their guru. They practiced physical training incl. Karate, which was free for men and women mixed!

The guru would give a daily discourse from 7.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. The ashram gave no permission for this. The ashram told them that they were unwanted in the ashram and barred entry.

Eventually they were interviewed by the police, esp. the guru himself. The guru said he had been with Baba for thousands of years. He and his followers were only there to do service as Baba should direct them. They wanted a clear answer from Baba, for his officials clearly were in fear and reacted unreasonably due to the murder attempt on Sai Baba of 1993.

They were barred from entering the ashram during the 1996 birthday celebrations, for which they had planned a firework display. Only three of them managed to get into the Kulwant mantap, but were fought down by the Seva Dals and ejected.

Thereafter they were legally refused visa rights on law and order grounds by the Joint Collector and District Magistrate, who cited their having held provocative speeches against Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba and ashram people at Puttaparthi, filming/videoing illegally within the ashram, and causing serious alarm in Puttaparthi. The police served the order and they left India.

OTHER SHORT NEWS:

Kutumba Rao was on the Central Trust until he died.

Mehra resigned some time around 1993.

Central Trust meeting of early July 1993 only fetched 3 members (Baba, Joga Rao and Janaki Ram), so had no quorum for voting.

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The sister of the late Shah of Iran is a devotee

(Robert Goodman (Ph.D) disaffected after gold chain incident & Tal Brooke’s book, himself writing book against Baba (as of 1997). Address: Guadalquivir, 20. Pozuelo de Alareon. 28224 Madrid, Spain. He seems to mistale the Om cult for the Takahashi devotees who visited Madrid Sai Centre. A bit doubtful… but may write and see?)

In The Sceptic, Vol. 7, No. 9 Jan. 1995, Premananda reported: “It is heartening that the judiciary of Italy has convicted Mr. Craxy, the Prime Minister of Italy for 8 ½ years jail. While I was in Italy in 1992 being invited for the European Conference, there was a full page write-up by Craxy about the powers of Satya Sai Baba. It should be remembered that when Hindu published the Bofors and italian scam over the commission paid of on the defence purchases he along with Palme the P.M. of Sweden, Hinduja etc. were at Puttaparthi.

Corrections: Craxy is wrongly spelt – it is Craxi - Bettino Craxi was the First Minister of Italy and it was his brother Antonio Craxi who was a devotee of SB and most likely the one who wrote the article. (We thank Mr. Holbach for the correction)

Olaf Palme never visited Puttaparthi.-