NAGPUR: A new dimension has been added to the alleged attempt on the life of Sai Baba at his Puttapartht ashram in Andhra Pradesh with sources in the Nagpur police giving the main accused, Vijay Shantaram Prabhu, the benefit of the doubt.
The Nagpur police claim to have inside information about the incident, in which five persons were shot dead by the Puttaparthi police, Prabhu was arrested along with an associate, Ravindra Babu, from a lodge at Sitabuldi here on July 7 even as the Union home minister, Shankarrao Chavan, an ardent devotee of Sai Baba, ordered a nationwide manhunt for them,
The two had arrived here after escaping from the clutches of the law in Andhra Pradesh and Kamataka. At Nagpur they contacted a devoice of the Baba for financial assistance, The devotee promptly informed the police who arrested them.
They were intensively interrogated by the Nagpur police before being handed over to their Andhra counterparts, who had come here to take them back to Puttaparthi.
Prabhu reportedly told the police that he and those shot dead by the police were all staunch devotees of Sai Baba.
According to him, a coterie of five persons staying at the Puttaparthi ashram were misappropriating cash and jewelry offerings made by the devotees to the Baba. The Baba had been duped of several lakhs of rupees in cash and kind,
Prabhu said that finally they took up the matter with the Godman, who expressed his anguish over the development but said he could not initiate any action against the inmates unless there was concrete evidence.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 5, 1993
