Aurangabad: Residents of Pathri in Parbhani district of Maharashtra decided Thursday 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 will file a petition in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court with evidence to prove that Saibaba 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 Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had retracted his statement on Pathri being Saibaba’s birthplace under pressure from the Shirdi temple trust.
“Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Jadhav had met Uddhav Thackeray to seek his appointment for meeting Pathri residents but it was denied and we were told not to take the controversy any further,” said Babajani Durrani, MLC and president of the action committee.
“”We have decided to go for legal procedure to resolve this issue and won’t be meeting Thackeray. A team of advocates will visit Pathri and we will file a petition in the court next week. 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 Saibaba,” asserted Durrani.
It should be stated here that the Sena Tuesday said Thackeray should not be blamed for the ‘uncalled for’ controversy over the birthplace of Saibaba as nobody can tell whether the 19th century saint was actually born.
PTI
