Sai Baba’s devotees fight for coins

A controversy has erupted over the possession of nine silver coins given by Sai Baba to a woman, Laxmibai Shinde, before he took maha-samadhi in Shirdi.

Baba had given the coins as a gesture of gratitude to the woman who had single-mindedly taken care of the saint for 45 years. Laxmibai, before her death, handed over the coins to one of her daughters, Sonubai.

Sonubai, who had three sons and two daughters, gave it to one of her daughters, Shailaja Shinde-Gaikwad. Shailaja filed a complaint with the Shirdi police station on September 23 stating that her nephews — Shivaji Bhaskar Shinde, Govind Bhaskar Shinde and Bapushaeb Bhaskar Shinde — are allegedly duping devotees by showing them the silver coins and collecting money.

“But those coins are fake. The real ones are with me,” she claimed in her complaint.

Shailaja’s son Arun told DNA, “My grandmother Sonubai gave coins to my mother before her death. We formed the Laxmibai Shinde Trust in 2000. Bhaskar Shinde’s family is duping devotees, so we have given to the Shirdi police all the documents that records how we got the coins.”

Senior inspector of Shirdi police station, Dutta Pawar, said investigations are on based on the documents provided by Shailaja’s family.

Arun said that Baba had put his hands inside the pocket of his kafni and handed over the silver coins to his great grandmother, Laxmibai. He claimed that despite lucrative offers from devotees, they have refused to sell the coins.

“We would not want to give away something which the Baba himself had touched and given to my great grandmother,” he said.
Claiming that the allegations against his family were baseless, Chandrakant Shinde said, “I don’t want to say anything more at this juncture.”