BANGALORE: Sathya Sai Baba died a week ago, but the controversy now isn’t about the holy ash, but his coffin.
Mystery shrouds over why the casket, which carried the mortal remains of the spiritual guru, was ordered as early as on April 4—a good 20 days before the official announcement of his death last Sunday at age 84. Who placed the order is a matter of deeper curiosity.
The story exploded on April 28 when a Kannada news channel reported that a Bangalore-based freezer box-maker said he got an order from a certain person from Coimbatore—allegedly for the ‘ailing’ Sathya Sai Baba. Members of the Shri Sathya Sai Central Trust members were quick to absolve themselves of any knowledge of it.
However, the casket-maker, Kumar & Co International, seems to be well aware of the identity of the “mysterious” person. It is a certain Rajendranath Reddy aka Raju, who manages a machinery company in Coimbatore, according to N Shiva Ganesh, Business Development Officer of Kumar & Co. Confirms K Lakshmi, the owner of the ambulance service and coffin-maker, “We have checked his background after the controversy broke out.” After rumours to that effect started spreading, one of the trustees, Venu Srinivasan, said a devotee of Baba had arranged for the casket— and it was brought to Prashanti Nilayam only after his demise. “We never ordered any casket. There is so much devotion among devotees that it was sent by a devotee,” claimed Srinivasan.
Ganesh, on his part, says he has the mobile number and has interacted with Raju over phone as well as e-mail. “After we found out that it was the same casket we gave to Raju, I called him up to check whether it was for Baba. He said ‘yes’.” Ganesh also has the receipts (above left) of the two cash payments—Rs 57,000 and Rs 50,000 each.