Shirdi trust moots action against ‘duplicate’ Sai temples

PANAJI - The Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust (SSBST) is considering legal action against four Sai Baba temples in the country which claim to have samadhis (mausoleum) of the ascetic on their premises.

“Sai Baba undertook Samadhi at Shirdi on Vijaya Dashmi day in 1918. No other place can have his samadhi anywhere else other than Shirdi,” Ashok Khambekar, managing trustee of SSBST, told reporters here.

The four Sai Baba temples claiming to have duplicate samadhis are in Hyderabad, Dehradun, Pune and Bangalore.

“We have asked them to remove the samadhi and are waiting for their response. We are also considering taking legal action against them if they do not comply with our request,” Khambekar said.

“They can have temples and idols of Sai Baba, but they cannot play around by having duplicate mausoleums on their premises,” Khambekar said.

Located in the village of Shirdi in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, the SSBST is said to be the second richest temple trust after the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam trust in Andhra Pradesh.