Baba’s servant Reghu and five others were convicted and imprisoned on a charge of outraging the modesty of a Marwadi woman and Raghu was crying out in jail at Ahmednagar. Baba appeared to him and said. ‘I will see you freed’. Next day Tatya Patil brought the appeal papers to Baba after shown having them to some senior lawyers, who found that the conviction was based upon six eye witnesses. They considered it hopeless. Tatya took the papers to Bhav, Bhav means S. B. Dhumal at Nasik. When Tatya brought papers, Dhumal looked them up and told him, "there are so many seniors above me. Why don’t you take to Ahmednagar’. But Tatya replied, ‘Baba said that you should present the appeal’, and that settled the course.
At once Dhumal drew up an appeal memo and went to the District Magistrate of Ahmednagar at his bungalow. The District Magistrate asked him, ‘What is it about?’ Then Dhumal mentioned that it was a conviction for outraging a Marwadi woman’s modesty on the testimony of six eye witnesses. The Magistrate remarked, ‘It seems a very strong case’. At once Baba’s modus operandi was seen. Dhumal said, ‘Why six eye witnesses, Your Honour? You can get sixty eye witnesses in a fraction ridden village like Shirdi’. the Magistrate said, ‘Do you think so?’ Dhumal replied, ‘Think! Why, I am more than sure of it.’ When the words were being uttered through the mouth of Dhumal, the mind of Magistrate was being operated upon, and so he said, ‘If so, I acquit all your appellants’. The Magistrate had not called for the papers from the lower court, nor read the judgement nor appeal memo, but simply said, ‘Hand over the appeal memo to me and tell me the facts you are relying upon’. Dhumal practically dictated the appellate court judgement. The magistrate, a senior European officer simply wrote it out, and at once acquitted the appellants.
The Magistrate then asked Dhumal, ‘Is Sai Baba of yours a Hindu or Muslim?’, showing that all the while it was Sai Baba who was operating on his mind. Dhumal answered, ‘Neither the one nor the other. He is above both’. What does he teach was the next question of the Magistrate. Dhumal was up to the occasion. He said, ‘You must go to him yourself to know that’. ‘Can I go?’ asked the Magistrate. Dhumal replied, ‘Yes, you can certainly go’. The Magistrate had an idea of going to Shirdi some time later, but subsequently dropped the matter. So it was only for the nonce he felt interested in Shirdi. Meanwhile, Dhumal without any surety was taken Raghu and other five with him to Shirdi. That was the time when poor Dixit’s daughter died there and people were going to attend the cremation. Baba called some of them and said, ‘Don’t go, I will show you some chamatkar’. Shortly thereafter the appellants arrived. Then the people learnt how the senior District Magistrate acquitted the appellants straightway without hearing the other side or without sending for the papers and realised that this was the chamatkar. This is Manasthambam. Baba had gripped the mind of District Magistrate and made him deal out summary justice for the weird and great saint’s servants.
When Dhumal had gone to Ahmednagar to Reghu’s appeal, the parties paid him Rs. 300. When Dhumal came before Baba, Baba asked him for dakshina over and over again till his Rs. 300 was completely paid out because, the whole thing was due to Baba’s chamatkar, and so, he must not receive or, at any rate, retain any fee given for that.
Written by: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji
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