Sai Trust divided over Sathya Sai's will

Anantapur: By opening the doors of the Yajurveda Mandir, the legatees of Sathya Sai Baba may only have prised open a pandora's box.

Along with large quantities of gold, silver and cash, the Sathya Sai Central Trust reportedly found the Baba's diary and will, the contentious contents of which are widening the rifts within the trust. One group in the trust says the will mandated that prominence be given to the Sai Baba's long-standing caregiver Satyajit. Another group is denying that a will had been found at all.

The issue of Satyajit's role in future was the focus of a two-day meeting of the trust on June 14 and 15. Reliable sources say senior trust member and former Supreme Court judge PN Bhagwati is all for prominence to Satyajit.

When this was opposed some members, he felt hurt and volunteered to withdraw from the trust.

But he was pacified and persuaded to reconsider his decision.

All the same, some senior members are in a serious sulk. One of them is said to have stomped out of Puttaparthi on Friday night, miffed that Satyajit has not been given prominence.

Source say that one member, a Sai veteran of 35 years, was so put out by alleged spying on his office in Puttaparthi, that he would leave Prashanti Nilayam.

Given such rifts in the trust, chances are the governing body may be dissolved, or its aged members allowed to retire after putting in place a working system. But it is highly unlikely that any one person will be given complete control. "Trust members may each be given a specific activity or Seva programmes to handle. This will prevent power being concentrated in a single individual," a source said.

Meanwhile, Sai diehards, however, say that "things are slowly settling down" in Puttaparthi.