Start Reading With The Post #1:
The below is quoted from Wikipedia:
Those who have attempted to criticize and expose the deceptions of Sathyanarayana Raju have met with strong and often violent opposition from devotee circles, especially in India.[5] Basava Premanand, one of India's leading fake-guru busters stated based on his research that evidence proves the self-proclaimed "god-man", Sai Baba, is not just a fraud, but a dangerous sexual abuser. His statements enraged some of the holy man's supporters. To date, Basava Premanand has survived four murder attempts and bears the scars from several savage beatings. In 2004, his house was burgled again. He states the purpose of the assailants was to attempt to destroy the evidence he collected against the god-man for 30 years.[103]
Conny Larsson, once a close devotee of Sai Baba for 21 years and Leader of the Swedish Sai Baba organization says he continued to believe in the baba despite having experienced sexual abuse at the hands of the baba. He broke away from the movement, later , outraged on witnessing the baba's behaviour of a sexual nature with a young boy and then the boy's own mother who was waiting outside being deceived by a sleight-of-hand "materialization". Larsson states that when he dared to speak out: "I was threatened that I would be shot when I should go to Poland. And now one has tried a new tactic, from the Sai movement, and that is to send out messages about me saying I am a convicted pedophile. They have, so to speak, turned around the entire problematic and say that what Sai Baba is guilty of - pedophilia – is what I am guilty of. I and the other guys who have dared to speak out – it is us who are pedophiles. And they have send this announcement out across the globe. And Sai followers believe it."[104]
Commenting on the issue, Sanal Edamaruku states: "The media[in India] is scared, basically. For example when the big scandal about SB’s sexual abuse on people arose. And look at the Indian media. There was only one newspaper from New Delhi which produced the story. People are so afraid, so scared because he is politically powerful and his influence is so real and he can damage if he is criticised. Anybody (who) criticises is eliminated, or attacked or cornered or isolated. Having a press conference on SB’s 70th birthday, the very next day I found that my car parts were removed in the morning so that I could simply have an accident. It could look like a coincidence. Such things happened several times, but we are not afraid. We are not going to be cowed down by that thing. We’re waiting for that time that people come out openly and expose this cheat."[105]
.....A Spokesman for the BBC spokesman told Asian Voice: "The profile of Sai Baba went to great lengths to be balanced and fair, and did not simply concentrate on the negative allegations."..."As the research developed it became clear that the film was about a crisis and ultimately a betrayal of faith. Genuine Sai Baba followers like the Rahm family have had their faith shattered in the most disturbing manner. The man they believed to be God was repeatedly sexually abusing their son. All over the world similar stories are emerging from former devotees. Governments around the world are deeply concerned and are beginning to take action warning their citizens about Sai Baba."..."We were very keen to cooperate with the Sai Baba organisation in the making of this film, offering them many opportunities to take part but they refused. This was in no sense an attack on the faith. I believe the film showed respect for the genuine believers, and it would have been remiss of the BBC not to examine such allegations. A stance we’ve taken when similar charges have arisen within other denominations."[93]
Friday, May 22, 2009
Mafia like Violence against Critics
A most decietful smoke screen, cunningly labelled "charity."
According to The Times:"Sai Baba is being challenged on another more prosaic front. Questions are being asked about the fundraising techniques employed by his followers. Some are accused of targeting vulnerable rich people and claiming that the miracle worker might be able to cure the afflictions of old age." The Times reported on the case of Clarissa Mason, the second wife of the film star James Mason: "When Clarissa died of cancer in 1994, she willed a large part of her late husband's £13 million estate to the cult, although, due to a dispute with Mason's children, Portland and Morgan, who contend that the estate was not hers to will in the first place, it will be some time before the cult can hope to see any of the Mason millions. Clarissa Mason believed utterly in the powers of Sai Baba, filling her house near Lake Geneva with pictures of the "godman". Her legacy has gone to a trust whose beneficiaries are believed by Mason's children to include a follower of Sai Baba." Joseph Edamaruku states: " He raises enormous amounts of money from India and around the world. We do not believe claims that it is spent on hospitals and charitable works." [27] - Wikipedia
"...This I believed until I was shown a Telegu newspaper with a front page feature article showing photos of villages with no water, broken pipes, no pipes, pipes and no tanks, and many with nothing at all. The headlines translated, read‘SAI BABA WHERE’S OUR WATER? YOU’VE CHEATED US AGAIN!’.I went to some of these villages within the project radius and found for myself that the report was correct. My questioning local businessmen in the area revealed some interesting information. General opinion concurred that the project had been set up because the ashram had many problems with it’s own insufficient well supply; one of which was constantly recurring gastric disturbances, particularly with foreigndevotees. Request for permission to lay a water pipeline to the ashram fell on govt.’s deaf ears, the response being that unless villages along the proposed line could also be supplied, permission would be withheld. Hence the huge global fund raising, which also perplexed me - having been indoctrinated with the ‘no fund raising’ policies given out by Sai Baba. Within twelve months an effective pipeline to the ashram anda selection of villages was established, and then the work stopped. At myconsternation at being of told this scandalous situation, the village elders simply shrugged their shoulders saying “What can we do?” " - The Findings
"An interesting case was that of a former devotee from Vijayawada, who donated a building to the trust. She had written in her will that the building was to go to the Sai Baba after her death. She was 55 years when she wrote the will. The trust authorities waited for five years, and then wrote to her family asking it to hand over either the building or its revenue. The problem was that the devotee was still alive. "When I tried to take the donation back from the trust, no court or magistrate was ready to hear the case or give me justice," said the donor. She is on her deathbed and she despises the Sai Baba and all he stands for." - Sathya Sai Central Trust: grab as grab can, Tehelka Report
"Hydrabad Nov 4, 1999 : Justice G Raghu Ram of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday admitted a writ petition seeking initiation of criminal prosecution against the doctors of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi in Anantapur district, alleging malpractices regarding the transplantation of a kidney. The writ petition has been filed by Balaji Triambak Rao Karavande, who has alleged that the doctors of the institute removed a kidney from his body and did not transplant the same to his father. He informed the court that after this revelation, he lodged a complaint with the Latur (Maharashtra) police, who in time, exhumed his father’s body and conducted a postmortem, which confirmed that no kidney transplant had taken place. He alleged that the police at Puttaparthi did not register the complaint and he was thrown out of the hospital when he confronted the doctors with the relevant documents." - The Findings
Cold Blooded Murder
On 6 June 1993, six deaths happened in the controversial Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba's ashram - Prashanthi Nilayam. Four devotees, aged between 25 and 40 years and all resident in the ashram, went to Sai Baba's residence armed with knives.[1][2] As they approached they were stopped by four of Sai Baba's attendants.[2] In the struggle that followed, two of his attendants were killed and the other two injured.[2] Hearing the commotion Sai Baba escaped through a back stairway and raised the alarm.[1][2] The assailants purportedly ran and locked themselves up in sai baba's bedroom. What followed is highly disputed. The police version claimed that when the room was opened the boys charged at the police with daggers so they were all shot dead. [2] The police stated that they were charged at by the men, who were subsequently shot by the police.[2] Others, including V.P.B. Nair(Former Secretary to the Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh), Sanal Edamaruku, and Basava Premanand, state the cornered assailants were deliberately shot at and that political influence of Sai Baba kept the investigations from proceeding.[1]
Reports and analysis
The police version claimed that when the purported assailants, who had locked themselves in a room, charged at the police with daggers so they were all shot dead. A Central Investigation Department report stated that the official police report is riddled with lies and inconsistencies.[1] V.P.B. Nair, Former Secretary to the Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who comes from a police background, states that the police report was riddled with lies and that the killing of the four boys were"absolute cold-blooded murder" . He opines that two or three daggers could have been no match for armed police and the story of all four boys being shot-dead in self-defense seems far-fetched. .[1] Analysts point out that for armed police to disarm the assailants would have been elementary: "the youths could have been disarmed or - at worst - shot to disable them, if they had actually threatened the police"[3]
Another witness to the murders was a 14 year old boy 'Subbapayya' who happened to be in Baba's room when the assailants entered. The Indian Express (13-6-1993) states that according to police reports, the boy, in his early teens, was in Sai Baba's room when the assailants knocked saying there was a telegram for Sai Baba and he 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."[4] The CID interrogated Subbappayya twice, despite the ashram authorities demanding they present a valid authority to do so. [5]
Analysts such as Basava Premanand also state that the there too many inconsistencies in the official story. All four boys had been shot at several times - which would be absolutely unnecessary if the purpose were to just disarm them. He notes that abrasions and marks apparently inflicted by beating were found on the boy's bodies which are also inconsistent with the initial police reports. One of the boys, Jagganatham had been shot through the palm and two places in the chest at close range. Another of the purported assailants, Suresh Kumar, had been shot in the left eye( to the brain ), right thigh and left wrist. [6]
All four purported assailants were ex-students of Sai School and close devotees of Sai Baba.[6] [7][8] R.R. Gogineni, The Former General Secretary of Rationalist Association of India, states that all the people killed were part of the inner circle of Sai Baba, and among them was Radha Krishna Menon,the personal assistant who had apparently been caught on video "passing the necklace clandestinely to Baba."[9]
British Broadcasting Corporation's investigative journalist Tanya Dutta states, in the BBC documentary "The Secret Swami": "Some police officers were arrested but never charged. The case was eventually dropped. Sai Baba has always had a close relationship with the police. Even today, senior officers are special guests at the Ashram. With friends in such high places Sai Baba seems to be untouchable. Any attempt to investigate the goings-on at his Ashram - even, murder - appear doomed to failure. Critics say police connections ensured that Sai Baba wasn’t even interviewed, despite being one of the witnesses to the events of that night. Indian journalists were censored and their stories suppressed."[1]
Telly Gallagher, who had then been holding the position of "Central Coordinator of Sathya Sai Organisation, Australia" for three years, states : "It wasn’t until 1993, following the assassination attempt on Sai Baba, resulting in the murder of four college students and two assistants in the Mandir, that we[ he and family] made our last visit to India. The purpose of this visit was to find the reason why former students of Sai Baba’s college would want to kill him, particularly when they had been given a free education! The eye witness accounts were horrific! After bursting into the Mandir, four students found themselves trapped upstairs where Sai Baba was staying. Each was interrogated by police, then one at a time they were executed! The stench of death was everywhere. I made further inquiries about Sai Baba having sexual relations with college boys and male students - some of these as young as seven years of age - and whether this was the reason for former students wanting to kill him. I was told[ by those in the ashram ], to my horror, that this was an acceptable Indian practice! I felt sick, and just wanted to take my family and leave the ashram and India as quickly as possible." [8] Shortly thereafter, Gallagher resigned his position and quit the organization.[8]
Other analysts also opine that Sai Baba was directly involved in the murders. Sanal Edamaruku states the initial purpose of the boys trying get to Sai Baba was apparently to threaten him to stop abusing children or to murder him for doing so. Based on his research, he states: "A policeman who was working at the police station in Puttaparthi at that time told me that the boys had come there and said to Sai Baba:[words to the effect] 'Now there will be a bit of a stop to these sexual assaults on small boys.' Sai Baba then locked them in - he was angry – locked them in, went and pressed the alarm button for the police. The police came and they received the go-ahead from Sai Baba to take over the matter ..[Others] could hear the boys up in Sai Baba’s bedroom and living room for four hours. And later the police thought it so dangerous to let them out to the people who were waiting outside that they quite simply executed them after four hours of interrogation."[10]
The incident was widely published in the Indian press. Sai Baba, on July 3, 1993, dismissed the reason as "jealousy" among his followers, without giving any more details or explanations of the events.[11] The former Secretary of the Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh, V.P.B. Nair, is now trying to re-investigate the case.[1]One of India's leading newspapers, The Hindu, reported that commenting upon the murders at the time, the International Chairman of Sai Baba’s Organization and a member of the Sathya Sai Central Trust, Indulal Shah, stated to pressmen: “…the matter is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it.” [12] Analysts such as Premanand have expressed their outrage at the fact that sai baba was never questioned or interviewed.[1]
Several sources, including a Central Bureau of Investigation and V.P.B. Nair (Former Secretary to the Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh) stated that the official police report contained inconsistencies.[1] R.R. Gogineni, the Former General Secretary of the Rationalist Association of India, stated that all the people killed were part of the inner circle of Sai Baba.[13]
A previous case of alleged murder related to the ashram was reported on 20 February, 1987, when the body of a student at a college run by the Sathya Sai Trust was found in a semi-charred state. While the case was dismissed[weasel words] as suicide[who?], Narendra Nayak, writing in the Indian Skeptics Journal, opined that the "powerful force around the Baba got the [police] inquiry turned into a farce." He notes that circumstantial evidence did not support suicide being a plausible cause of death.[14]
Analysts point to several discrepancies, including[89][82][5]:
- The refusal of the ashram and Sathya Sai Central Trust authorities to lodge any complaint on the six murders in Baba’s quarters.
- The video film and colour photo negatives and positives of the bodies and crimes scene asked for by the Puttaparthi police were later impounded by them. (However, despite this, colour prints have survived and have been published). The photos show a blood-stained lathi (police baton), pieces of rope in blood pools around two of the bodies, while the other two bodies have no blood around them.
- Suppression of the news of the murders by the police for 12 hours, of the post mortem reports until after cremation, and of trying to refuse access to the press to the FIR (First Incident Report), which later proved to be wholly uncorroborated and obviously false on many specific counts. The mandatory magisterial probe and the CBI (Criminal Bureau of Investigation) reports were not completed and nothing of substance was made public, while the entire murder investigation was closed down by a confidential Government order, the remaining evidence of which is that no charges have been registered and no official report has ever appeared.
- Refusal by Prashanti Nilayam, Puttaparthi, ashram authorities to allow the two injured attendants (A. Patley and V. Bhatt) whom they kept under heavy security to give evidence (except in secret to the CID) and attempt - by removal of him to a secret location - to cover up the inexplicable and unexplained existence of a boy student in his early teens (Subbappaypa) in Sai Baba’s room who opened the door and gave him the alarm. The CID interrogated Subbappayya twice, despite the ashram authorities demanding they present a valid authority to do so.
- Failure to secure material evidence such as bullets fired by the police, and the concealment of material evidence like photos of actual and alleged injuries, the bedding of Sai Baba and the four assailants who were to sleep on guard at the Puttaparthi mandir (Sai Baba’s residence where the events occurred) that night.
- No explanation as to why the bodies of the guards killed were found on the ground floor, when the assailants had reportedly crept up to the 1st floor and knocked at Sai Baba’s door claiming to deliver a supposed telegram. Nor would the investigators explain how the alleged assailants entered Sai Baba’s quarters when the door had already been bolted from inside (by either Subbappayya or by Sai Baba).
- Evidence from crime scene photographs, scars and beating marks evident on images of the dead bodies, along with blood stained batons and ropes seen in the images, according to analysts, strongly suggest that the boys had probably been tied up and beaten before being executed.[82]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i BBC Documentary. Secret Swami
- ^ a b c d e f Ruhela, Satya Pal (1997), Sri Sathya Sai Baba and the Press, 1972-1996, M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 9788175330412, pp. 106–107
- ^ Janakiramiah, Sai Baba’s blackmailing younger brother, Robert Priddy
- ^ Excerpt from the Indian Express. 13-6-1993.
- ^ Analysis of 1993 Murders Discrepancies by Robert Priddy
- ^ a b Analysis by Bhasava Premanand of the 1993 Murders
- ^ The Findings. An investigative report and collection of incriminating testimony complied by The Baileys.
- ^ a b c The Findings. Terry Gallagher - A Letter to the Baileys.
- ^ SATYA SAI BABA. Retelling The Story, Babu R.R. Gogineni Former General Secretary of Rationalist Association of India
- ^ Interview of Sana Edamaruku for Danish TV Documentary: "Seduced by Sai Baba"
- ^ Guru Purnima Discourse, July 3, 1993, Keep Truth as Your Aim: Available online
- ^ Quoted from a report in India's leading Daily The Hindu, 10-6-1993
- ^ SATYA SAI BABA. Retelling The Story, Babu R.R. Gogineni Former General Secretary of Rationalist Association of India
- ^ Investigate the Murder at Satya Sai Baba's Collage, The Indian Skeptic.May 1998.] Image of body as carried on Indian Skeptic( warning: graphic images ).
Next Post: A most decietful smoke screen, cunningly labelled "charity."
Murder, Deception, Debauchery and Deciet - Part 1
The reader is urged to read these two posts (each word a link) first if he has been deceived by the trick-miracles of the wretched thing.
Reports of homosexual abuse have surrounded the controversial Indian godman Sathya Sai Baba for at least 30 years.[1] According to the BBC, "The scale of the abuse has caused alarm around the world... Governments around the world are deeply concerned and are beginning to take action warning their citizens about Sai Baba." [1][2] The website of the American Embassy in Delhi, in what they confirm is a direct reference to Sai Baba, [1] warns Americans visiting Andhra Pradesh of a "local religious leader" who reportedly engages in "inappropriate sexual behaviour" with young male devotees. [1] The embassy states "most of the reports indicate that the subjects of these approaches have been young male devotees, including a number of U.S. citizens." [3]
| “ | The scale of the abuse has caused alarm around the world... Governments around the world are deeply concerned and are beginning to take action warning their citizens about Sai Baba. | ” |
Reports of homosexual abuse of children and young men by Sai Baba have persisted for over 30 years.[1] In 1970 a book titled "Avatar of the Night" published by a former devotee alleged homosexual abuse of young boys by the guru.[4]
[edit]Corroborative Reports
The testimonies of sexual abuse of young men were shown in TV documentaries, including "Seduced by Sai Baba" by Denmark's national television, and documentary film "Secret Swami" by BBC.
In 2004 the BBC aired the documentary titled "Secret Swami" in UK. The documentary covered the allegations and experiences of former devotees. The BBC team states that they discovered that there are a number of former devotees have turned away the from the godman stating he ruined their lives.[5] In the documentary, Alaya Rahm, who was brought up as a devotee by his parents, recounts his experience of being sexually abused by the swami: "I remember him saying, if you don't do what I say, your life will be filled with pain and suffering. And that’s a pretty heavy thing to hear being sixteen and God’s telling you do what I say or your life is going to be full of pain and suffering." In what the BBC states was as "an intimate and powerful" portrait, Alaya's family discusses how they became devotees and how they were betrayed. The documentary also touches upon the experience of Mark Roche. Roche, who first heard of the baba in nineteen sixty-nine and had devoted twenty-five years of his life to the movement, recounts his experience of suffering sexual abuse in the hands of the baba.[1] BBC states that "As the research developed it became clear that the film was about a crisis and ultimately a betrayal of faith. Genuine Sai Baba followers like the Rahm family have had their faith shattered in the most disturbing manner. The man they believed to be God was repeatedly sexually abusing their son. All over the world similar stories are emerging from former devotees. Governments around the world are deeply concerned and are beginning to take action warning their citizens about Sai Baba." According to a BBC reporter, so many western devotees have undergone genital oiling by Sai Baba that they have come to believe it is some religious ritual. Indian Writer Khushwant Singh reacts to this by saying that this genital oiling is not part of any Indian tradition and that there is no basis to the claim whatsoever. [1] [6] The documentary was also broadcast in Australia and by CBC Television, in Canada.[7]
The documentary "Seduced By Sai Baba", produced by Denmark's national television and radio broadcaster Danish radio was aired in Denmark, Australia and Norway. The documentary carried interview in which former long-term devotees who recount experiencing sexual violations in the hands of the godman. The documentary also carried exposés of how the purported miracles are done by the godman.
Ex-devotees have contacted the FBI, Interpol, the Indian Supreme Court and a host of other agencies, hoping for help in their battle against the guru. A California man named Glen Meloy, who spent 26 years as a Sai devotee, is trying to organize a class-action lawsuit against Sai Organization leaders in America, modeled on the one recently launched against the Hare Krishnas. [2] His faith was shattered when he was shown excerpts from the diary of his close friend's 15-year-old son, detailing several incidents of molestation. The child of devotees, the boy had been raised to worship Sai Baba as God, and obliged when the master reportedly ordered his disciple to suck his penis. "You've got all these kids who are scared to death to do anything that will do disrespect to their parents, in a room with someone they believe to be the creator of the whole universe," said Meloy, his voice choked with fury. "This isn't just any child abuse; this is God himself claiming to do this."[2] According to The Times, a complaint was lodged with India's Central Bureau of Investigation on March 12, 2001 but there has been no apparent result.[7]
Hari Sampath, an Indian software professional now living in Chicago and a former volunteer in the ashram's security service, is petitioning India's Supreme Court to order the central government to investigate Sai Baba. His greatest concern is for Sai Baba's Indian victims, who generally have a much more difficult time speaking out than Westerners do. During his time at Prasanthi Nilayam, he said, many students at the ashram's college told him they were pressured to have sex with the guru. "I've spoken to 20 or 30 boys who have been abused, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are 14-year-old kids made to live in his room and made to think it's a blessing. In most cases, their parents have been followers for 20 years and are not going to believe them," Sampath said by phone from Chicago. "Westerners have little to lose by coming forward. The Indians have to go on living among Sai Baba devotees."[2] Sampath also wants the American government to intervene, on the grounds that "American citizens have been knowing about this abuse and taking American boys to Puttaparthi and feeding them to him."[2]
In 2000 UNESCO yanked its cosponsorship of an education conference in Puttaparthi, explaining that it was "deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been leveled at the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba."[2]
After Conny Larsson, a Swedish film star who once traveled the world speaking of Sai Baba's miracles, went public about his coerced sexual relations with the guru, the Sai Organization in Sweden was shut down, along with a Sai-affiliated school[1][2]. A cover story in the weekly magazine India Today reports that following a story in England's Daily Telegraph, "Labour MP Tony Colman raised the issue in Parliament. A former home office minister, Tom Sackville, also took up the matter, saying, 'The authorities have done little so far and that is regrettable.' There is a movement now to urge the British Government to issue warnings to people wanting to visit Baba's ashram." [1]
According to Michelle Goldberg, the fact that the Baba has high ranking Indian politicians as his supporters and the purported charity works associated with the baba help to explain why he has not been brought into a court of law in India. The Indian consulate website states that crime victims must file charges with the police. Goldberg notes that Sai Baba's charities have reportedly been plagued though by "rumors of chicanery and worse."[2]
In an article that was published in the India Today magazine in December 2000, it was stated that no complaints had been filed against Sathya Sai Baba by any alleged victim, in India. The magazine stated they are in possession of an affidavit signed by Jens Sethi (an ex-devotee) and reported that he filed a complaint with the police in Munich.[2][8]
According to The Times, "Suicides and suspicious deaths have long marred his [the godman's] reputation. A German man was found hanging from a rafter in Puttaparthi in the early 1980s. A father and daughter took fatal overdoses in Bangalore in 1999 after failing to get an audience with the guru."[7] In August 2001, The Times reported: "Michael Pender, a student, hoped that Sai Baba would be able to cure him of HIV. Like thousands of devotees from around the world, Mr Pender went on a pilgrimage to Sai Baba's ashram in Puttaparthi, southern India, expecting to find magic and divinity. Instead Mr Pender, known as "Mitch," was found dead after taking tablets in the lonely bedroom of a hostel for the homeless in Highbury, North London. He was 23." The article notes Kathleen Ord, who first told him of Sai Baba's teachings, has since destroyed her books and videos on the holy man, stating: "I blame myself in many ways because, if I hadn't introduced them, Mitch would probably be alive now. That's what he went to India for, thinking he'd find a cure...He tried to commit suicide in the ashram. He had overdosed on drugs more than once. He had some strange, very powerful experiences there. There was something sexual that was frightening." Her son, Keith, has given a detailed account of what Mr Pender said in his last weeks about meeting Sai Baba. The guru flattered the British student by describing him as "the reincarnation of St Michael." Mr Ord's evidence, posted on the Internet, states: "He told me that the very first private interview that he had with SB was a sexual encounter.".."After telling me of his experiences, Michael became quite depressed." On January 12, 1990, Mr Pender's body was found by the supervisor of his hostel. Traces of paracetamol and alcohol were found in his blood, but a pathologist found it impossible to determine if they were lethal doses. An open verdict was recorded at an inquest in St Pancras. [9]The Times article goes on to outline two more stories, one of which is about Andrew Richardson, a 33 year old British national. Richardson made a pilgrimage to Sai Baba's ashram, booking in for a week, but mysteriously leaving after only two days. On September 19, 1996, Mr Richardson travelled to Bangalore and hired a taxi at the railway station to one of the city's tallest buildings, the State Bank of Mysore. Mr Richardson flung banknotes and travellers' cheques in the air, ran into the bank and up the stairs to the eighth floor, where he smashed a window and leapt 84ft to the ground, killing himself. A suicide note was found saying he was in a deep depression: "I came to India in search of peace but could not find it." [9]
The Guardian and DNA note that a travel warning was issued by the US State Department about reports of "inappropriate sexual behavior by a prominent local religious leader", which officials confirm is a direct reference to Sai Baba.[10][11] The Guardian further expressed concerns over a contingent of 200 youths travelling to the Baba's ashram in order to gain their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. [12]
"Sai Baba was my God -- who dares to refuse God? He was free to do whatever he wanted to do with me; he had my trust, my faith, my love and my friendship; he had me in totality," says Iranian-American former follower Said Khorramshahgol. What Sai Baba chose to do with him, Khorramshahgol says, was to repeatedly call him into private interviews and order him to drop his pants and massage his penis.[2]
The Daily Telegraph reported, in October 2000, of the allegations. The article touched upon the testimony of several ex-devotees and their children who shared their experience of sexual abuse by the baba. [13] Koert van der Velde, a reporter for Dutch newspaper Trouw, noted that Sathya Sai Baba apparently started forbidding his devotees to not look at the internet after the allegations arose.[14]
The Vancouver Sun notes that with "the sex scandal rapidly being unveiled on various Internet sites and in a few newspapers, Sai Baba has told his adherents, whose numbers range from 10 million to 50 million, depending on whom you talk to, not to sign on to the World Wide Web."[15]
The BBC states that "The scale of the abuse has caused alarm around the world. In Sweden a Sai Baba school closed down after disturbing revelations from a young boy."[1]
Reference
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j The Secret Swami.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Goldberg, Michelle Untouchable 25 July 2001
- ^ Consular Information Sheet - India, Released by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, on January 19, 2007, US Department of State
- ^ Michelle Goldberg,"Untouchable."
- ^ Secret Swami. BBC News
- ^ New Allegations Of Abuse Against Sai Baba by Payal Nair, Asian Voice, 26 June 2004: Available online
- ^ a b c Suicide, sex and the guru, Dominic Kennedy, The Times (England), Aug. 27, 2001
- ^ India Today, "A God Accused", 4 December 2000 Available online
- ^ a b Three die after putting faith in guru. The Times
- ^ Paul Lewis, The Guardian, The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards', November 4 2006, page 3, Available online '
- ^ Ginnie Mahajan/Brajesh Kumar, DNA World, A holy furore rages in Britain, Available online
- ^ Brown, Mick (2000-10-28). "Divine Downfall". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
- ^ The Divine Downfall, The Telegraph, UK
- ^ Velde, Koert van der "The Downfall of a guru, Sai Baba" 6 September 2000 in the Dutch tabloid newspaper Trouw
- ^ The Vacouver Sun, 27 February 2001, Holy man? Sex abuser? Both?