Residents of Pathri in Parbhani district on Thursday decided to approach court to get legal sanctity to their claim that 19th Century saint Saibaba was born in their village.
Members of the Sai Janmabhoomi Pathri Sansthan said they would file a petition in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court with evidence to prove that Sai Baba was born in Pathri.
A controversy has erupted over the purported birthplace of the revered saint, 102 years after he took ‘samadhi’ in Shirdi.
Some residents claimed that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had retracted his statement on Pathri being Sai Baba’s birthplace under pressure from the Shirdi temple trust.
MLC and president of the action committee, Babajani Durrani, said Pathri residents will move court on the issue.
“Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Jadhav had met Mr. Thackeray to seek his appointment for meeting Pathri residents but it was denied and we were told to not take the controversy any further,” said Mr. Durrani.
“We have decided to go for legal procedure to resolve this issue and won’t be meeting Mr. Thackeray. A team of advocates will visit Pathri and we will file a petition in the court next week,” he said.
“We won’t mind if the government grant for Pathri doesn’t come but we will never give up our claim that Pathri is the birthplace of Sai Baba,” he said.
The Sena on Tuesday said Mr. Thackeray should not be blamed for the “uncalled for” controversy over the birthplace of Sai Baba as nobody can tell whether the 19th Century saint was actually born in Shirdi.
