THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The family members of the Sathya Sai Baba are being kept out of the loop of the activities in Puttaparthi after his samadhi, alleged Sankar Raju, Sathya Sai Baba’s nephew.
Talking to Express here on Saturday, he said that except Ratnakar, another nephew of Sathya Sai Baba and a member of the Trust, no one in the family was aware of what was going on in Prasanthi Nilayam, the abode of Baba.
Even in the construction of samadhi of Sai Baba, the family members had been kept in the dark about what was happening. ``Politicians like Jaganmohan Reddy visited the place and had seen what was going on at the place where his body had been buried, but not the family members,” he said.
Sankar Raju came out against the members of the Trust, especially against his cousin Ratnakar and another member V Srinivasan and said that the Trust had been in a very bad shape ever since Baba’s demise and warned that the family which was remaining a mute spectator at present would break the silence at the right moment.
“When the Trust members held a press conference, all the senior members including P N Bhagavathy and S V Giri were keeping quiet. Only Ratnakar and Srinivasan were running the show. We are patiently waiting and watching how the functioning of the Trust is going on. All members should maintain the sanctity of the Trust which Baba had formed,’’ said Raju. He said that not a single member from the family was informed when Yajur Mandir - where Sai Baba had been residing - was opened. “ When the media questioned this, one of the members said that they could not do so as there were more than 200 family members and they could not inform all of them.
That is baseless. Sathya Sai Baba has got two brothers and two sisters. We are only less than 15 members including the sons and daughters of Baba’s brothers and sisters. Even in the hospital, when we were there for the full time, we were not allowed to visit him”, he said. Raju said that the news that all developments were being discussed with the family members of Sai Baba, was false.