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.
On 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.