Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati seeks probe into alleged flow of foreign funds into Sai devotees' bank accounts

RAIPUR: After raking up a controversy over the worship of Shirdi's Sai Baba, Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati today said the Home Ministry should probe the alleged flow of foreign funds into the bank accounts of Sai Baba supporters.

"The bank accounts and telephone records of the so-called supporters of Sai, who appear on television, should be investigated so that the entire country should know which foreign power is trying to distort the sanatan dharma and funding them. To reveal all this before public we demand the Home Minister to conduct a probe into it," the Dwaraka Peeth seer said in a conference here today.

Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati had convened a two-day long 'dharma sansad' (religious congregation) in Chhattisgarh's Kabirdham district last month, during which a resolution was passed that Sai Baba of Shirdi should not be worshipped as a deity by the followers of sanatan dharma.

Ruling out issuing any kind diktat for forceful removal of idols of Sai, he said, "We had come to a decision and delivered it to protect sanatan dharma. Now it's upon the faith of the followers of sanatan dharma."

"We have received proposal from hundreds of temples. They want to remove the idols of Sai Baba from their temples," he added.

The issues to be addressed in the next dharma sansad to be held in Baitul (Madhya Pradesh) will be decided soon after confirming its schedule, he added.

When asked about the performance of the Narendra Modi government in the first hundred days, Swaroopanand Saraswati said, "Modi has got a strong government so he should fulfil his promises particularly scrapping Article 370, removing hurdle of Ramjanmabhoomi and uniform civil code as soon as possible."

He, however, said, "We should wait and see the performance of his government."