Kalmadi arrested, suspended by Cong – ToI – 26.4.11

Neeraj Chauhan | TNN

New Delhi: The CBI finally caught up with Suresh Kalmadi. The agency on Monday arrested the chief organizer of Delhi’s graft-tainted Commonwealth Games for a case related to a Rs 141-crore contract for the in-stadia results and scoring system.
    The timing-scoring-result (TSR) system contract to Swiss Timing Private Ltd, said CBI, was rigged to favour the firm and keep a competitor out despite a much lower bid of Rs 48 crore. Two Kalmadi close aides, secretary-general of the Organising Committee Lalit Bhanot, and its director-general V K Verma, are already in jail in this case.
    Kalmadi’s arrest has come following a virtual avalanche of allegation against him and other notables who played a key role in organising the Games. Keen to send a message that it will not condone graft, Congress suspended the Pune party MP within hours of his arrest. Kalmadi has been charged for cheating, conspiracy and corruption. He will be produced in the court on Tuesday. More arrests are expected.
    Kalmadi came to the CBI headquarters in his Audi car at around 10.30 am and was confronted with Surjit Lal and ASV Prasad, two more Organizing Committee officials belonging to its procurement and sports divisions, who were also arrested. Around 3.30pm, Kalmadi was told that he was being arrested. He has been questioned thrice earlier. He will be kept at CBI headquarters on Monday night.
    The arrest of the influential Pune MP, seen to be well networked across party lines, indicates corruption is now seen as a serious enough concern to strip important leaders of any political immunity. BJP and the Left, however, were not satisfied with the arrest. Their leaders felt Kalmadi’s arrest had taken too long and demanded to know whether action would now follow against other political persons indicted by the V K Shunglu committee on Games-related irregularities.
    As the case is developing, it seems some senior bureaucrats and senior sports and finance ministry officials may face some heat as they were part of a committee that cleared the financial aspects of the TSR contract.
    CBI sources said Kalmadi was not cooperating with the probe and was giving evasive answers. The agency said the TSR deal caused a loss of Rs 95 crore in funds provided by the government to the OC as the tender terms were altered at the instance of Verma even after they were advertised.
Sports ministry wants IOA to sack Suresh Kalmadi as its president
    The government moved swiftly to distance itself from Suresh Kalmadi by writing to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) seeking the Pune MP’s removal as the sporting body’s president. The sports ministry’s letter to IOA is intended to convey that the government is keen to initiate a clean up of sporting federations while cauterizing Kalmadi’s tainted legacy. The fallen sporting czar’s arrest could provide the ministry the leverage to break the resistance of sports federations, many headed by politicians. Kalmadi has ruled the roast in IOA with the help of an entrenched patronage system that encourages secretive and feudal functioning. Attempts to fix time-barred tenures has been challenged in courts and the Congress MP got a pliant International Olympic Committee to back his stand. P10 THE CHARGE Kalmadi arrested for “conspiracy to favour a private firm... by awarding contract of timing scoring and result system at inflated cost of 141cr”
Tender put out for scoring tabulation and display system on Oct 1, 2009
Bid called for experience in operating system and/or experience in major events
Bid tweaked by replacing and/or with ‘and’ so that experience of Asian Games, Olympics, Commonwealth Games became mandatory
Only Swiss Timing Pvt Ltd qualified, Spanish firm MSL’s bid rejected
Swiss firm got Rs 107cr deal, MSL’s bid was Rs 48 cr
Kalmadi aides V K Verma and Lalit Bhanot arrested for exhorbitant costs, restricting competition, causing loss
    THOSE ARRESTED SO FAR IN CWG CASES Lalit Bhanot | FORMER SECRETARY GENERAL OF OC; V K Verma | EX-DG OF OC; T S Darbari | FORMER JT DG OF OC; M Jeychandran | EX-TREASURER OF OC; Sanjay Mohindroo | EX-JT DG OF OC; K U K Reddy | FORMER ADDITIONAL DG OF OC; Sanjay Deorukhkar | PS TO KALMADI; Sandeep Wadhwa | MD OF COMFORT NET FOR OVERLAYS CONTRACT; Praveen Bakshi | OVERLAYS SUPPLIER ALSO HELD ON MONDAY Surjit Lal | DDG PROCUREMENT, OC ASV Prasad | JT DG SPORTS ‘COMPETITION WAS ELIMINATED’
Timer contract was awarded by wrongful means, says CBI TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The CBI on Monday arrested the CWG Organising Committee Chief Suresh Kalmadi in relation to a Timing-Scoring-Result contract and agency sources claimed that Kalmadi and his aides allegedly threatened members of the tender evaluation committee.
    The accused persons including Kalmadi had conspired with AKR Constructions (Indian branch of Swiss Timing) and the contract was awarded by wrongfully restricting and eliminating competition from other suppliers in premeditated and planned manner, the agency said. Kalmadi is likely to be booked in other cases as well. These include the contract with UK firms AM Car and Van and AM Films, both owned by Ashish Patel, in connection with the Queens Baton Relay function in London. He could also face the heat for a Rs 30 crore contract to Swiss-based Events Knowledge Services for games management and support as investigators have discovered that minutes of OC's executive management committee for award of work were forged.
    Officials said that the TSR tender was to be submitted in three parts -- pre-qualifying, technical and commercial. Kalmadi and others framed the conditions in a manner that it helped Swiss Timing. Another firm, MSL from Spain, was eligible for the contract and it has quoted Rs 48 crore for the whole work but it was rejected. Had the contract been given to MSL (which provided TSR facility during Asian Games in China), there would not have been a loss of Rs 95 crore. Out of this money, Rs 23 crore was paid to AKR constructions as well, said a CBI source.
    Kalmadi had been avoiding CBI's summons which asked him to join investigations from last two weeks. When asked about delay in arresting him, the officer said, "We were collecting foolproof evidence against him.'' Kalmadi's defence is that he was not alone in taking these decisions and there was a technical committee which had cleared them. On this, the officer said, "We have documentary evidence against Kalmadi.''

Kanimozhi, Raja, DMK TV chief got 200 cr bribe from DB: CBI --- ToI -- 26.4.11

FROM 2G TO CWG, TIHAR HAS NEVER HOSTED SO MANY BUSINESS TYCOONS, POLITICIANS 3 More Charged For Paying Money; Karuna’s Daughter Faces Arrest

Smriti Singh | TNN

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu’s first family has been singed by the 2G scam. On Monday, the CBI charged Kanimozhi, DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s daughter, of conspiring with former communications minister A Raja to receive a bribe of Rs 200 crore which was allegedly routed to DMK’s Kalaignar TV.
    Kanimozhi along with Kalaignar TV CEO Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Films Karim Morani and Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajiv B Agarwal has been named in CBI’s second chargesheet for conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. While Asif and Agarwal were arrested on March 29, Kanimozhi, Kumar and Morani have been asked to appear in the special 2G scam court on May 6. The odds are that they will be arrested that day. Accepting the chargesheet, the court pronounced: “There is enough incriminating material on record” to proceed against the accused.
    On Feb 4, TOI (along with ‘The Economic Times’) had first reported the money trail from DB Group’s Dynamix Realty and two other sister firms to Kalaignar TV which is owned 60% by Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, and 20% by Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar. And on March 30, TOI was the first to report that Kanimozhi would be charged in the 2G case. While Kanimozhi and Kumar have been charged by the CBI, Dayalu Ammal has been spared because she doesn’t know English and has not been involved in the day-to-day running.
    In its 48-page supplementary chargesheet, supported by about 8,000 documents, the CBI said: “Dynamix Realty, which is a partnership firm of Dynamix Balwa group companies, paid Rs 200 crore as illegal gratification to Kalaignar TV, which is also controlled by affiliates of DMK to which accused A Raja belongs, and such fund transfer was facilitated by Asif Balwa, Rajeev Agarwal and Karim Morani through their companies Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables and Cineyug Films.” While indicting Kanimozhi, the agency said that the Rajya Sabha member was the active brain behind Kalaignar TV and held a 20% stake. She actively pursued with the intermediaries and DMK headquarters the matter regarding reappointment of A Raja as communications minister in 2009, “which clearly establishes the strong association of Kanimozhi and A Raja in the official/ political matters,” CBI said.
    The first chargesheet filed on April 2 had charged nine individuals, led by Raja, and three companies of criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and bribery and causing a loss over Rs 30,000 crore in the award of telecom licences and spectrum. The supplementary for the first time draws a money trail in the scam, which the CAG had estimated to have caused a loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
    The agency told the court that its investigations have revealed that Dynamix Realty partnership firm of DB Realty, Eversmile Construction and Conwood Construction Developers paid Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV between December 2008 and August 2009. Dynamix Realty had routed the funds through Kusegaon, which is a DB Group company, and Cineyug Films, where DB later held a 49% stake.
    Elaborating on the money trail, CBI has said that the fund flow started on December 23, 2008, six days after Swan Telecom received Rs 3,609 crore from Etisalat Mauritius and Genex Exim Ventures. Over the next eight months, DB Realty transferred Rs 209.25 crore to Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables through 16 transactions.
    In turn, Kusegoan transferred Rs 200 crore to Cineyug Films in seven transactions. Another Rs 6.25 crore was transferred to Cineyug through five transactions between January and July 2009. This, CBI has said, was post facto shown as a transfer by Kusegaon for acquisition of 49% in Cineyug. In the last leg, through six transactions between December 23, 2008 and August 7, 2009, Morani transferred Rs 200 crore Kalaignar TV account. The Accused Kanimozhi | DMK MP & TN chief minister M Karunanidhi’s daughter Sharad Kumar | CEO, Kalaignar TV
Asif Balwa | Director, Kusegaon Fruits & Veg (part of DB Group) & Shahid Balwa’s cousin (already in custody)
Rajiv Agarwal | Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Veg (already in custody)
Karim Morani | Director, Cineyug Media The Charges
Kanimozhi “active brain” behind Kalaignar TV, shareholder She pushed for A Raja’s appointment as telecom minister Along with Raja and Kumar received Rs 200cr in Kalaignar TV from DB Group as ‘reward for undue favours’ Raja pursued Kalaignar’s case with I&B ministry, Tata Sky Dynamix Realty routed payments via Kusegaon, Cineyug; later sought to pass them off as loans and refunded money Charged for criminal conspiracy, under Prevention of Corruption Act
Already In Judicial Custody
A Raja | Former telecom minister Siddhartha Behura | Former telecom secretary R K Chandolia | Former pvt secy to Raja Sanjay Chandra | Chairman, Unitech Wireless (TN) Vinod Goenka | Co-promoter, Swan Telecom Shahid Balwa | MD, DB Realty Gautam Doshi | Group MD, Reliance ADAG Surender Pipara | Group president, Reliance ADAG Hari Nair | Sr VP, Reliance ADAG WHAT NEXT
Kanimozhi will have to appear before CBI special court on May 6 Not naming Dayalu Ammal a reprieve for DMK. Ongoing probe unlikely to affect Cong-DMK ties, coalition
    3rd chargesheet likely to focus on role of Loop Telecom and allocation of licences since 2001, according to CBI sources CBI’s clean chit to Batcha TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: Though the companies and those named by the CBI claimed that the money transfer from DB Group to Kalaignar TV was a “loan”, the investigating agency has rubbished the claim saying “no valid agreement was signed between any of the parties and no collaterals/securities were ensured to secure the alleged loan amounts”.
    Investigation has also revealed that when accused A Raja was contacted by the CBI for his examination scheduled on December 24, 2010, Kalaignar TV started refunding the amount of Rs 200 crore to Dynamix Realty, through Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables. A substantial part of the amounts was refunded by it just before February 2, 2011, when Raja was arrested, the chargesheet said.
    The CBI has, however, given a clean chit to Green House Promoters, which was owned by Raja’s aide Sadiq Batcha and his wife, in the conspiracy saying that the money transferred by DB Realty to the company was returned prior to the registration of FIR in the scam.

Fall in graft incidence in rural areas: Study – ToI – 25.4.11

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: A corruption survey by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) has revealed that since 2005, overall percentage of rural households which paid bribe in any public service during the last one year preceding the survey has come down from 56% to 28%. The figure, though, remained high in Chhattisgarh (55%), Bihar (52%), Kerala (46%) and Maharashtra (40%).
    The 2010 round of the survey which is the seventh edition of the Centre’s studies on corruption, covered 10,000 rural households in 12 major states. The four public services covered in this round are public distribution system (PDS), school education (up to class XII), water supply services and hospital services. The full study with foreword by NAC member Aruna Roy and Lok Satta chief Jayapraksh Narayan will be released on April 29. The percentage of rural households that paid bribe during the last one year was relatively higher in PDS (11.5%) followed by hospital (9.0%), school (5.8%) and water supply (4.3%).
    About 4-6% of rural households were deprived of these public services as they could not afford to pay bribe. Curiously, going by the outcome budget document of the union ministry of rural development, the total expenditure made under MNREGS during the year 2010-11 in states such as Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra is equal to or less than the total amount (Rs 471.8 crore) paid as bribe by the rural households in the 12 states surveyed, says highlights of the survey released by CMS.
    The survey also claimed that the general perception about corruption in public services has shown a declining trend between 2005 and 2010 with 70% in 2005, saying there is an increase in the level of corruption in public services against only 45% after a five-year gap.

LAW OF THE JUNGLE – ToI – 25.4.11

In Chhattisgarh’s Abujhmad forests, Maoists run kangaroo courts. Recently, they executed three men, then four more, for the same crime. No one complains and no FIR is filed because the area is out of bounds for the Indian state

Supriya Sharma | TNN

    The Moist press note that arrived at a newspaper office in the first week of March said: “Shikhshakarmi ke naam pe kalank Kamlu Varda ko janata ke hathon maut.” Or that primary school teacher Kamlu Varda had been executed. So had two other men.
    Kamlu Varda, 30, had done well for a Madia adivasi. He had spent eight years teaching, had a monthly salary of Rs 7,700, and a cycle on which to travel the 10 km from Kutul, where he lived with his family, to Dhurbeda, where he worked. Both villages are in Abujhmad, a forested plateau in Narayanpur district in southwest Chhattisgarh.
    Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until one morning in the middle of February. The Maoists showed up at Kamlu’s door and took him away. Days later, the district collector of Malkangiri was abducted by Maoists in neighbouring Orissa. The collector’s abduction made national headlines for 10 days. Kamlu’s abduction did not make it even to the local papers, until February 24 — the day the collector was released.
    Narayanpur superintendent of police Mayank Srivastava explains police inaction on the Kamlu case. “The rumours are persistent but Kamlu’s family has not filed an FIR.” He adds that investigation would, in any case, have been impossible, as there is no police force in Abujhmad.
    Abujhmad, which means unknown hills, is perhaps one of the last of India’s uncharted territories. A 4,000-sq-km sprawl nearly as big as Goa, it shows up on Google Earth as a dense green carpet. Visitors describe it as forbidding terrain, its rugged hills and valleys are crisscrossed by streams that turn into angry rivers during the rainy season.
    The Maoists moved in here in the eighties. With barely any sign of the government and not a single police post, it did not take long for them to call Abujhmad a “liberated area”, ruled by the Janatana Sarkar or people’s government.
    Most of what transpires inside Abujhmad never makes it to the outside world. Kamlu’s abduction wouldn’t have either, but for the fact that two other men went missing around the same time. Pramod and Mulchand, both drivers, had told their families they would be away for work for a few days but did not show up for weeks. The suspense was killing. Until the first week of March when the press note was sent by Rakesh, spokesperson of Madh North Bastar Joint Divisional Committee of CPI (Maoist).
    It said the three men had been executed for a crime committed a year ago. The drivers were part of a gunda giroh (criminal gang) and had allegedly raped and killed two “Janatana Sarkar workers Comrade Kumli and Comrade Chaiti.”
    Were the men guilty? There was some ambivalence in the two drivers’ backgrounds. Pramod was rumoured to have misbehaved with a girl from Abujhmad and his mother Sukli Bai claims he married her but eventually, she ran away. Was the young woman one of the two alleged victims?
    Mulchand’s mother Duleshwari Bai innocuously admits he watched TV all day because he stopped working “last year. He used to drive a tractor in Abujhmad. But then something happened, he stopped going out.” It may be coincidental but the Maoist press note claimed that’s when Comrade Kumli was raped and killed.
    So much for the drivers. Kamlu was in a different category. By all accounts, there were no skeletons in his closet. Even the Maoist note did not describe him as part of the gunda giroh, merely claiming he sheltered it and had been a police informer since 2004.
    Lies, say Kamlu’s fellow teachers, insisting he “was killed because he dared to defy them.” They recount Kamlu daring to object when “the dada log (Maoists)” turned up at school and took away rice meant for the children. Then again, in 2007, Kamlu was teaching in Mohandi village and objected to the Maoists using the school playground for executions.
    The impression that Kamlu died for his defiance of the Maoists is reinforced by another story. On February 10, as they do every year, the Maoists were celebrating Bhumkal, the 1910 adivasi rebellion but Kamlu refused to attend, “saying they were hindering development. The next day, they took him away,” goes the account.
    It is difficult to cross-check anything because there is no access to Abujhmad. Meanwhile, the local newspaper reports that another four men killed by the Maoists. And once again, the families do not come forward to complain, no police FIR is filed. Why were they killed? The question is answered by Gudsa Usendi, Maoist spokesperson. He told this correspondent on the phone that six people had been picked up, of whom four had been executed on March 23 after a jan adalat of 3,000 people had found them guilty of the murders of Comrade Kumli and Comrade Chaiti. But weren’t three men already killed for that crime?
    “It was a gunda giroh,” insisted Usendi. “They confessed to their crime. We have video recordings.”

A MYSTIC GURU – ToI – 25.4.11

Sathya Saibaba Leaves Behind Millions of Grief-Stricken Disciples, Institutions And Social Welfare Projects That Will Continue to Benefit Humanity For Several Decades To Come

G Arun Kumar | TNN

Hyderabad: It is difficult to imagine that Puttaparthi was once a sleepy village called Gollapalli. But that was many decades ago, before a precocious teenager known for magically fishing out goodies from his bag like sweets, pens, watches and chains declared at 14 that he was a reincarnation of Shirdi Saibaba. The date of the proclamation was October 20, 1940. Now, 71 years later on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, a Puttaparthi boasting of superspeciality hospital, schools and colleges grieved much like the rest of the nation, the passing away of the person it owes its identity to— the 14-year-old, who was born here as R Satyanarayana Raju and who passed away at 85 as one of the country’s most popular godman, Sathya Saibaba.
    Sathya Saibaba’s 28-day battle in hospital had devotees praying for a miraculous recovery, their belief rooted in the many miracles Baba was credited for during his lifetime. From creating ash or even gold from thin air to miraculously pulling out cancer from a devotee’s body (a much reported event in the case of a devotee named Rosy) Saibaba’s popularity soared swiftly, the miracles helping establish his divine identity among devotees.
    Within four years of making his declaration that he was Shirdi Saibaba’s reincarnation, he embarked on a spiritual journey that would in the years to come become bigger, greater and even controversial at times. By 1950, he had earned himself devotees, committing their lives to serving the godman. Among them was Sakamma of Karnataka who significantly funded the construction of Prasanthi Nilayam for her ‘living’ God.
    But then, Puttaparthi shaped up with Saibaba’s increasing popularity, his spiritual enterprise turning the village into a town with metro facilities. Born on November 23, 1926, Saibaba was the fourth child of Eswaramma and Ratnakaram Peddavenkama Raju, Saibaba fulfilled the wish of his mother when he decided to provide free medical care to the poor, particularly women and children, education and drinking water, thus revealing his humane side.
    Saibaba never really ventured out of Puttaparthi for long. He lived in Yajur mandir and gave darshans in Sai Kulwant Hall, which has a capacity of 4,000. During the summer months, he stayed in the massive Brindavan ashram in Kadugodi, Whitefield, Bangalore. Occasionally, he visited Sai Shruti Ashram in Kodaikanal.
    And while he reached out to millions of devotees across 188 countries, Saibaba never travelled to the West. The West came to him, as did other material comforts. He owned BMWs, Rolls Royces and Toyotas (all No. 9999).
    Nevertheless, the Afro-haired Baba was either known for his divine powers of producing Shiva lingams, statues of deities, sugar candy, gems, strings, herbs and amritam out of nowhere, or for his charitable work as he announced welfare schemes on his birthday every year. Of course, he was also known for his list of devotees.
    Baba’s list of devotees read like a who’s who from politics, business, entertainment, judiciary and sports field. Almost all the Presidents, Prime Ministers, Union ministers, governors, judges and chief ministers besides foreigners were his devotees and kept visiting his Prasanthi Nilayam regularly. One of his first VIP followers was former AP chief minister Marri Channa Reddy. When Saibaba was 37, Channa Reddy, then minister for planning, inaugurated a school in Puttaparthi and remained a frequent guest at Saibaba’s abode.
    Then there were devotees who aided significantly in boosting Saibaba’s popularity the world over or turned into interesting case studies themselves as they gave up their material life to serve Baba and work for his trust. Among them included Indulal Shah, trust member and chartered accountant from Mumbai who set up Sathya Sai international oranisations, bhajan mandirs, health centres and schools. Today, the Trust has 1,200 such centres world over with a combined membership of 10 million. Then there is Hard Rock Cafe founder Issac Tigrett Burton. The American is said to have sold his stake in Hard Rock Cafe and donated his life’s savings for the construction of the superspeciality hospital at Puttaparthi. When Saibaba announced that he wanted to set up a super-speciality hospital in 1991, donations poured in from all quarters and the entire sum of Rs 300 crore could be raised. This facilitated the construction of the hospital in 80 acres in a record time of 11 months, says Saibaba’s nephew M Shankar Raju, who admits that the hospital was the brainchild of Burton.
    But Saibaba, over the years, had only become too familiar with such generous donations. An American named Gold donated Rs 600 crore to the Trust six years ago, sources say, adding that an NRI donated Rs 50 crore for the indoor stadium in 2009, while an Indonesian devotee gave Rs 50 crore for the music college last year. And last year, when the Trust came out with Vidya Vahini, a street school project, Ratan Tata announced TCS would provide software, laptops, food, clothing and teaching faculty for the project.
    If controversies such as murders of six young men in the ashram 18 years ago or foreign media reports on child sexual abuse did rear their head, the reverential voices of devotees seemed to drown them. Take for instance, the experience of Leonardo Pablo Gutter of Buenos Aires, Argentina, when he first met Saibaba. “Waves of energy and bliss rose from my feet to head. I felt ‘ananda’ that I was looking for in my spiritual quest.” Or Puttaparthi Urban Development Authority (Puda) former chairman Kota Satyanarayna’s recollection of dark clouds clearing up when Baba gave darshan.
    “He dissected difficult problems in a simple form and explained them with apt examples chosen from daily life of common people. His spiritual teachings are simple to understand and easy to practice,” says ardent devotee D S N Murthy, former professor, Andhra University even as veteran actress Jamuna shares, “His numerous service projects — be it free hospitals, free schools and colleges, free drinking water schemes — stand testimony to his compassion for the less privileged.”
    But some allege that Saibaba, who was likened to God by many including Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, was effectively above the law, a powerful and protected person backed by heads of the state and even the judiciary. “Not only did he enjoy enormous clout with the powers that be, but also sat over a wealth of donations,” a former disciple not wanting to be named alleges. Besides, there are allegations of some 200 societies fleecing people by collecting money on his name.
    Nevertheless, his devotees remind that Saibaba always exhorted them to follow the five tenets of satya, dharma, shanti, prema and ahimsa. John Hislop, author and former president of American Sathya Sai Organization, wrote in his book that Saibaba did not have Osho’s flamboyant lifestyle, but remained rooted to Indian culture. Baba, a non-Brahmin of Backward (Bhattraju) Caste, had dropped out of school after Class IX, but devotees claim he could converse in Italian, German, Russian and French.
    For now, on the minds of most people is the future of Sathya Sai empire, said to be worth anywhere between Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000 lakh crore. The Sathya Sai Central Trust manages medical and degree colleges, schools, Sadhana Trust of publications, Eswaramma Women’s Welfare Trust, Seva organisations, superspeciality hospitals in Puttaparthi and Bangalore, general hospitals, eye hospitals and drinking water schemes in Anantapur, Medak, Mahbubnagar, East and West Godavari districts and Chennai. In Puttaparthi itself, there is a massive Sathya Sai University complex, Chaitanya Jyoti museum, a planetarium, an indoor stadium, an outdoor Hill-view stadium, a general hospital, a music college, an airport, apart from the superspeciality hospital and Prasanthi Nilayam.
    He healed himself of a heart attack he suffered in 1963 but lost the 28-day battle for his life in the April of 2011. But death did not come before his another prediction— that his next avatar would be in the form of ‘Prema Sai’ who would be born near Mysore.