ANANTAPUR: Internal bickering between the devotees and trustees of the Puttaparthi Satya Sai Baba trust came into the open in Nigeria after the Nigerian police reportedly detained representatives from the Muddinehalli campus.
They had gone there to collect donations. They include: Madhusudan Rao Naidu, who was declared Satya Sai Baba’s successor and trustee, Narasimha Murthy, Isaac Tigrett, C. Srinivas, Arun Dhareshwar (former executive staff of the United Bank of Africa) and their Nigerian collaborators, Fr. Charles Ogada, Anant Rao (an executive working with United Bank of Africa) and Ashok Pai (executive working with the Diamond Bank).
The Muddinehalli campus, located on NH 44, near Bagepalli in Karnataka, about 35 km from Prasanthi Nilayam, was opened by the late Sri Sathya Sai Baba a decade ago and was reportedly being led by a group of followers who differed in their views from the members of the Satya Sai Central Trust based at Prasanthi Nilayam.
The group was also diverting devotees towards Muddinehalli from Puttaparthi soon after Satya Sai Baba’s demise.
Sources said that the team, which included a self-styled godman, was arrested by the Nigerian Police Force in Enugu on July 26 for investigations pertaining to cheating, defrauding innocent Nigerians, conspiracy and deceiving innocent people with ulterior motives to collect handsome donations, amongst other charges, by using the name of Satya Sai Baba.
The group sneaked into Nigeria pretending to be the guests of Anant Rao, one of the collaborators. The Muddinehalli group was exposed in Nigeria by the Satya Sai International Organisation (SSIO) Zone 9A, Region 93, for disgraceful activities, including fraud and deceit, and disrupting Satya Sai Baba’s sacred mission.
