In the publication of The Findings, David and Faye Bailey recounted the following:
On my last visit to Puttaparthi, a male student came and asked me for help, on behalf of some of his fellow students, because they were desperately in need of someone to stop Swami sexually abusing them. I was told how Sai Baba had for years been demanding that these particular boys have oral sex, and group sex for his pleasure. Their details matched what I had already been told so many times round the world. I asked him if this was an acceptable practice in India, and his look of horror as he denied it, spoke volumes.
Then he asked me a question I couldn't answer.
'Sir, why do you think ex-students tried to kill him in '93 ...?' (!!!)
This statement is the uncertified testimony of a young man, fearful, who spent an entire night speaking with David and Faye Bailey, in July of 1998. What was recounted in The Findings is neither witness testimony, nor sworn affidavit by either David nor Faye Bailey, regarding the factuality of this unidentified student's assertions.
The allegations I have gathered to record here, are in regard to the global scam he perpetrates. His chicanery, illusion, fraud, embezzlement, implication with murders, ongoing paedophile activities and the almost impenetrable fortress of lies creating his 'divinity'. The weight of detailed descriptive testimony regarding his participation in sexual activity with willing - and unwilling partners (both students and visiting foreigners), discounting the widely distributed justification of 'kundalini raising'. The super speciality hospital and water project being shown to be paper tigers, with apparent embezzlement of money, organ theft and unfulfilled hydration promises.
The Sai Critic points out that implication with murders is unsubstantiated by The Findings, and is simply lumped in with many other matters summary, like 'chicanery', 'illusion' and 'fraud'. These are general claims that are symptomatic of the Baileys general discontent and disaffection with Sathya Sai Baba and not founded upon irrefutable evidence. Hence the above conclusion is summary and makes irrelevant appeals to matters dissatisfying to the Baileys.
Bailey cites the "evidence" of Terry Gallagher, former Coordinator of Sai Organisation:
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 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!
This is not evidence by any shake of the stick. It is conclusion drawn from hearsay. Terry Gallagher does not supply any support for the claims of "execution" claims of Terry Gallagher. The statement is simply offered as evidence, and the reader is left to draw the appropriate conclusion.
In fact, in the light of official evidence available (the FIR - First Information Reports tendered by Puttaparthi Police) directly contradicts Terry Gallagher's claims. He (or David Bailey) conveniently omits to say that the three students who "burst into the mandir" in fact willfully killed two persons on the ground floor, stabbed two others (one who bled to death) and then locked themselves in Sai Baba's bedroom, taking one with them who was not involved at all.
No references to either official investigations, nor eyewitness testimony is offered in support of Terry Gallagher's assertions, and nor does Bailey offer his readers the benefits of any concrete specific evidence he has gathered himself. What Bailey offers is rumour, gossip, hearsay, prattle and scandal, gathered by another. It is second hand hearsay.
Connecting the 1993 Shootings to the matters alleged and asserted in The Findings may appear to make the 1993 Shootings an entirely different, serious matter than concluded by the authorities.
Other investigations conducted by Magisterial Inquiry, Criminal Branch - Criminal Investigations, and subject to appeal in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and the Supreme Court of India have generally considered the matters prima facie concerning struggles for control of funds, properties and the ashram administration, these being mainly based on opposing jealousies.
Some newspaper reports considered the search and destroy techniques in regard to Tal Brookes book 'Avatar of Night' as conclusive of a sexual motive for the entire matter. Neither the criminal investigation, the judicial findings nor the newspapers took this matter any further, as it was irrelevant and dismissed as a red herring. Proper conclusions in regard the matters in causa for the 1993 Shootings generally regard monies, funds, trust accounts, control thereof, power and jealousy as primary motives.
David and Faye Bailey cite a night-long conversation with an unnamed young man who refuses to give his name nor take action. They do not give his name either. It is plain the man is fearful and has seduced the judgement of the Baileys. No effort is made to provide a record of statement, no sworn affidavit is provided, and the conversation, due lack of evidence, may be concluded to be fabrication, if one wished to take that course.
Did this young man stay out from the hostel for an entire evening and spend the night in the bedroom of David and Faye Bailey in Puttaparthi Ashram? Is this the norm for students of Sathya Sai Baba's educational institutions? Was this unnamed young man really a student or a disaffected teenager wearing a white punjabi suit and claiming to be a student? How did David and Faye Bailey verify that he was actually a current student in the then SSSIHL? No information is offered. No explanation is given for the gross improper behaviour of a student staying out of the hostel all night in a devotee's bedroom.
Ex-coordinator Terry Gallagher states that the 'sole purpose' of his final visit to Prasanthi Nilayam was to conduct investigation into why 'students who had received a free education would want to kill him'.
In The Findings, he states, 'Each was interrogated by police, then one at a time they were executed!'.
Terry Gallagher does not offer any methodical presentation of evidence, no statements, sworn depositions nor the like affidavits; no systematic gathering of evidence is offered, and no appraisal nor critical assessment of evidence and the conclusions he has drawn from his investigations.
It is to be noted that Terry Gallagher resigned, withdrew his children from the school and returned to his home country.
The manner of collection of data, assessment and presentation and the conclusions drawn therefrom is insufficient if it is to be reasonably accepted as a serious claim. All the Baileys have done is present other persons statements as 'fiat accompli' final, incontrovertible specific proofs that the 1993 Shootings were due solely to the claimed sexual improprietries of Sai Baba. That particular claim must fail as it is based on a fallacy: The claim fails as it is speculation post hoc; these people are dead, this is the reason. It is a fallacy to assert otherwise, as one cannot question the dead.
In the absence of reasonable evidence to support the connection of the 1993 deaths in the Mandir of Prashanthi Nilayam with the sexual controversies presented in The Findings, Bailey's assertions have to be dismissed.
Indian Skeptic B. Premanand has taken up matters in regard to the 1993 Shootings. A book, Murders in Sai Baba's Bedroom has been compiled. One (review) of the book was circulated late last year. For further comments on that and a review of the book itself, please go here
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