Sura Baba was looking beyond Odisha; planned huge temple in Mumbai

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 2:

Sura Baba aka Surendra Mishra, the controversial Odisha based fortune-teller now in the dock, wanted to expand his empire throughout the country. Mumbai was his next destination with a Trahi Achyut Ashram on the Western Express highway in Sasupada village, Thane district, Maharastra.

The Ashram has a dedicated website which states that the Trahi Achyut Ashram trust had planned to start the construction of a mega, 108-feet high temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath here. The aim of the grand temple was to be “a pioneer spiritual centre of Western India, spreading the essence of Sanatan Dharma” and to build a residential place for devotees.

The temple used to take donations in lakhs according to a report in Sambad newspaper. The report also claims that Sura baba had bought acres of land for the purpose of building the huge temple aiming to create a tourist place like the original ashram at Jjhiinti Sasan on the outskirts of  Bhubaneswar.

The temple promotes future prediction by Padmakalpa Malika Pothi, a palm leaf book written by Swami Achyutanand 550 years ago, and read out by Sura Baba in Odisha. “Pothi (Padmakalpa Malika) is currently in our Main Ashram in Trahi Achyut Nagar, Orissa,” says the website.

The website has four numbers as contact, three of which were switched off, while one devotee picked up the phone and said that the ashram presently had a Jagannath mandir and Baba used to visit the ashram on special occasions. She said they were upset by the happenings in Odisha.

The temple also has a Facebook page which claims the Padma Kalpa Malika also known as Sunya Pothi had appeared in a small village called Jhiinti Sasan now renamed Trahi Achyuta Nagar near Bhubaneswar 26 years ago.

Skeletons continue to tumble out of the controversial baba closet with allegations of personal musclemen, exploitation of women, human sacrifice, extortion and land grabbing charges.

The self-styled fortune-teller and his two sons are currently on three-day police custody facing interrogation in three cases: atrocities on SCs, illegal possession of arms and ammunition, and sexual misdemeanour.

Sura Baba’s Mumbai connection, however, was not limited to the upcoming temple and stretched to Bollywood. Reliable sources say a top Bollywood star had presented an upmarket Pajero car to to the Baba. The car, which was seen parked in the premises of the Jhiinti ashram most of the time, however, vanished a day before the ashram was raided by police, the sources said.