Baba frequented flat in city bought in 2010 at midnight!

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 7:

Skeletons are tumbling out of controversial Odisha godman Sarathi Baba’s cupboard every few hours. Close on the heels of the revelation that the Baba’s 20-year old son Satyam purchased a plot of land, along with a 2000 sq ft building on it in Patia area here for Rs 55 lakh comes reports of another flat acquired by the Baba in 2010.

In an exclusive expose that brings into stark relief the luxurious lifestyle and materialistic aspirations of the self-proclaimed godman, leading television channel ‘Kanak TV’ today claimed that Srimad Sarathi owns a flat bearing no 106 in Premier Residency in the posh Shree Vihar area in Patia locality here.

Quoting the secretary of Premier Residency Residents Association, who himself resides in the adjacent flat no. 105, the channel said Srimad Sarathi purchased the flat on a second-hand sales basis from the builder as the builder had retained the flat for himself.

“Sarathi had purchased the flat for around Rs 24 lakh from the builder in 2009-10 and used to frequent the place every one month or so. He would always come around midnight and used to leave by 4 am in the wee hours,” the secretary told the channel.

“He would come under the cover of night in a Ford Endeavour car clad in T-shirt and pants,” he added.

He however, maintained that he had not seen Sarathi visiting the place in the last six months or so

He said there was little scope for interaction with the self-proclaimed godman  since he would always come late in the night.

In an exclusive report aired on Thursday, Zee Kalinga news channel had claimed Sarathi Baba’s son Satyam Sekhar Roula (20) purchased a plot of land along with a 2000 sq ft duplex house on it in Patia area here for Rs 55 lakh in April, 2014.

The sale deed of the property (plot no.516/1746/4631, area 46 decimal in Patia mouza under Bhubaneswar tehsil in Chadrasekharpur police limits with a duplex building having 2000 sq ft area) was registered in Satyam’s name on April 11, 2014, the channel said.

Knowledgeable circles in the real estate market, however, say the price purported to have been paid for the land and the building has to be taken with a bagful of salt given the prevailing market scenario. It could not cost anything less than Rs 2 crore at the market rate, they aver.

But even if he actually paid Rs 55 lakh, the question that inevitably arises is: where did Satyam, all of 20 with no known source of income, get so much money from? The inference is clear: it is part of the money given as donation/gift to his father by his devotees.

But the more interesting part of this story is Satyam purchased the land and building from Sonam Sagar Ray (27), wife of Sagar Ray, an accused in the chit fund arrested by the CBI and currently in jail.

The sale took place at a time when chit fund companies and those with links to them were under the scanner. Sagar Ray, it may be noted, was arrested by the CBI on November 14, 2014, a few months after his wife sold the property to Srimad Sarathi’s son Satyam.

Interestingly, Sagar Ray’s wife had purchased the land in question from Pranab Balabantaray, BJD MLA from Dharmashala and son of former Rjya Sabha member late Kalpataru Das, in 2010.