June 6, 1993. Late evening. Three men enter the Mandir compound in Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram under pretext of delivering a telegram to Sathya Sai Baba. After admission, a scuffle occurs wherein Sai Baba attendants are stabbed. Two later succumb to their wounds, leaving their mortal coil. Assailants enter upstairs. Alleged exchange with Sai Baba. Alarm is set off. Residents, villagers, students come rushing in. Police enter. Ashram staff arrive. Assailants are holed upstairs in Sai Baba bedroom, locked in. Police storm upstairs, shots are heard, four assailants are dead. Photographs are taken. Bodies taken away for post mortem. The next day, the Judicial Magistrate commences investigation. Explosives and cyanide found in ashram.
Thus began one of the largest newspaper and rumor campaigns about Sathya Sai Baba in decades, probably the largest since he was challenged to materialise a pumpkin under scientific experiment conditions. Unwanton Police Killings? Murders? Has the matter been PROPERLY investigated? Is the case closed? These questions and more continue to linger around the mystery of the 1993 shootings in the Sai Baba Ashram, Puttaparthi, 1993.
On 27 September 1993 B Premanand, Convenor of CSICOP - Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal in INDIA and editor of the Indian Skeptic magazine lodged a writ petition in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh for an impartial enquiry into the incidents at Sai Baba's residence and other murky incidents.
The details of the Writ Petition, the Writ Appeal, Special Leave petitions and other court actions in this matter, along with approximately 400 pages of newspaper clippings are contained in the book 'Murders in Sai Baba's Bedroom', author B. Premanand. Specifically, Premanand was seeking a writ of mandamus, a prerogative order from the High Court instructing an inferior tribunal, public official, corporation, etc., to perform a specified public duty relating to its responsibilities . He wanted an independant investigation by Police who were not devotees of Sathya Sai Baba.
Premanand's book, of 800 pages, has a soft cover, and is approximately 2 inches thick. Inside the front page is the superscription
Skeptic Book Club #10
Murders in Sai Baba's bedroom
'Who Murdered the Six?
A Critical Analysis of the records.
B. Premanand
The book is divided into Two Volumes:
Volume 1 contains
VOLUME 2 - Newspaper Clippings.
Both appeals by Basava Premanand (High Court of India, High Court of Andhra Pradesh) failed; all his evidence was based on newspaper clippings and his questions arising therefrom. Basava Premanand has never heard of the Evidence Act, and does not know what primary evidence is. He believed that Sai Baba devotees doing the investigations would gloss over the matters, conduct a whitewash and hush things up generally.
Basava Premanand claims the Puttaparthi Police committed murder. He conveniently overlooks that the men in question entered the mandir on the night in question, armed, under false pretences, stabbed four people downstairs (three of the stabbed died) and then locked themselves in Sai Baba's bedroom. Sai Baba passed them on the way out and said "Fools, get out!" Now we have men locked in a bedroom with a hostage (they were three, they took one young man upstairs into the bedroom by force), and an innocent young man died in the subsequent shoot-out.
Why was there a shoot-out? Because killers (they had killed three people downstairs) had barricaded themselves in a room and refused to come out. What do you expect village police to do when confronted with killers holed up? Get down on their knees and pray? They did their job. They got the killers out of Sai Baba's bedroom, dead. There was no other way out for them as they had forfeited their rights by killing below, and taking a hostage into Sai Baba's bedroom. Premanand has no real facts at his disposal except what he read in newspapers.
In October of 2001, a purported 'review' of B. Premanand's book 'Murders in Sai Baba's Bedroom' was circulated on the Internet. Ernest C. Owen claims he was a former devotee in this online article:
The present writer has been involved with Sai Baba for decades and has spent much time with him at his ashrams, which is why it took me so many years since 1993 to come to accept
To be continued.
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