Talking for the first time from jail where he is lodged after his staying with a girl in a hotel in Hyderabad was flashed by media and several cases of irregularities came to the fore in his Kendrapada-based ashram, controversial guru and self-styled godman Sarathi Baba still claimed innocence saying that he did not share a room with the girl and that while the girl had booked a room in the hotel, he had been to Hyderabad on a different work.
Talking to a news channel, Sarathi Baba, now in Chowdwar Jail, said he is spending most of his time doing meditation in the cell and no matter where he is he would continue to carry on his usual spiritual practices.
When asked whether his Golkunda Hotel escapade was true, Sarathi said the truth has not come out yet and he has to add more to what has been shown and told. In a display of his antics, Sarathi was sometimes praising the girl, whom he said as a ‘nice personality’, while at other, he scolded her as a scorpion whom he rescued from a ditch but she stung him.
Despite loads of incriminating evidences against him, the Baba was still not prepared to accept his guilt and rather said he has been framed. “We had sniffed this sort of controversy breaking out four months prior to the incident. My followers apprehended my arrest. I was unfazed by that,” he said.
When asked if he was a God, Sarathi said he never claimed to be so and is just an ordinary person. He also ruled out having possessed any mystical power. Giving an evasive answer on whether his concrete cow was really giving milk, Sarathi said, “Tulasi Das had fed grass to a stone bull. Jesus Christ had fed 5,000 people.”
The Baba also rubbished the allegations of ‘palank seva’ and ‘anthua gopal’ in his ashram at Barimul. He also dismissed the charges that he was filming girls and women while bathing in his ashram.
Sarathi also said Satyam was not born out of bibhuti; rather he was adopted by him when a child.
On the huge flows of donations and illegal money to his ashram, the Baba claimed that he did not demand any gift or monetary gratification from any of his devotees though he admitted that his ashram was built only with the donations of his devotees and well wishers.
Sarathi also disclosed that many politicians and actors and actresses visited him and he has good rapport with all them.
On his wearing jeans and T-shirts, Sarathi said he wears all kinds of dresses and it is not a secret for his lakhs of followers. He even claimed, “I would remain like a Naga Sadhu without clothes once a week.”