98 kg gold, Rs.12 crore cash found in Sathya Sai Baba's chamber

Hyderabad: Around Rs.12 crore in cash and nearly 100 kg of gold were found from Yajur Mandir, the personal chamber of late spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba, at Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthi of Anantapur district, a trust official said.

A day after the Sathya Sai Central Trust opened the locks of Yajur Mandir, trust member and Baba's nephew R.J. Ratnakar Friday evening announced details of the cash and valuables found inside.

He told reporters at Puttaparthi that they found Rs.11.56 crore, 98 kg gold and 307 kg silver. Ratnakar said the cash would be deposited with State Bank of India (SBI).

Some bank officials and about 15 disciples of Baba, in the presence of trust members, have since Thursday counted the cash and valued the gold jewellery.

Ratnakar, however, denied that they found any will of Baba. He also evaded queries if the trust found any documents about Baba's personal caregiver Satyajit. There are speculations that the spiritual guru wanted Satyajit to be a member of the powerful trust.

Yajur Mandir, also known as Yajurveda Mandir, had remained closed ever since Sathya Sai Baba was hospitalised March 28 with multi-organ dysfunction. He died April 24.

The trust, which manages the huge spiritual empire led by Baba, owns assets in Puttaparthi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other cities.

                                           Home | Top of the Page

Top Stories

Lokpal debate collapses amid acrimony

The two-month dialogue between the government and the civil society for an effective Lokpal bill collapsed Thursday amid acrimony, with Gandhian Anna Hazare announcing another fast here from Aug 16 and  »

Hazare threatens another fast from Aug 16

Deadlock between Team Hazare, government continues

  Most Read

Maharashtra SSC Results: Mumbai tops; girls outshine boys again

Mumbai tops the eight divisions in the state and girls outshine the boys again as the Maharashtra Education Board declared the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) results today afternoon.  »

Improve quality of higher education: FICCI tells Oscar Fernandes

A leading business chamber Friday wrote to the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, Oscar Fernandes, voicing concern over the steep cut-offs announced in Delhi University and the "dismal" quality of higher education in the country.  »

  News Pick

Narrow escape for 1,000 train passengers in Assam

A train carrying around 1,000 passengers had a miraculous escape Friday with security forces detecting a powerful bomb found inside the train at the Guwahati railway station in Assam, police said. The bomb, kept  »

Planting trees to celebrate girls, a village keeps count

There's a village in Bihar that is greener than many others. For, it celebrates the birth of girl children by planting saplings. And now Dharhara is counting the number of girls born and the trees planted in the last 100 years   »

Stop 'carrot and stick policy', Sudan urge the US administration

The Sudanese government has called on the US administration to stop its "carrot and stick policy" that it has been using in dealing with the political issues in Sudan, Xinhua reported Thursday. "The Sudanese government does  »

Casteism versus Communalism

This is much discussed subject in Indian politics. Why I chose to write on it in “Secular Perspective”? Recently on internet a discussion was raging that all those police officers who are going against Modi in Gujarat are upper caste Hindus and not Dalits  »

Yet another Indian techie donates $1.5 million to Canadian varsity

Hyderabad-born Indian-Canadian techie Sreedhar Natarajan has announced to donate $1.5 million to the Canada-India Centre for Excellence in Science, Technology, Trade and Policy at Carleton University based  »

Picture of the Day

Humayun's Tomb, one of the country's first garden mausoleum and a Unesco World Heritage Site, is getting a makeover to resemble its original state with a unique not-for-profit private-public conservation project partnered by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Dorabji Tata Trust and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

(Photo: IANS)