UNSAFE IN THE ABODE OF SAI

In the wee hours of the morning on February 3, two employees of the Saibaba temple trust in Shirdi, Subhash Ghode and Nitin Shejul, were attacked and killed at different locations while they were heading to work.

- By Dhaval S. Kulkarni in Shirdi

Another employee, Krishna Deharkar, was seriously injured in one of the attacks—apparently random crimes that occurred in the span of half-an-hour. Two assailants, Kiran Sadaphule and Shakya Mali were arrested later and, if local police are to be believed, robbery was the only motive. The horrific incidents, though, led to anger and panic among the local populace of one of India’s most revered pilgrimage destinations.

Jolted into action, Shirdi residents called a ‘gram sabha’ meeting where it was decided that the Shirdi Municipal Council would conduct an unprecedented “local census” in the town to “identify outsiders” engaged in illegitimate work and those with criminal antecedents. The gram sabha also decided that all establishments will be shut between 11.00 pm and 5.30 am, and that residents will stay indoors unless they have a valid reason.

It’s fast becoming a pushback with a strong classist tenor. Locals claim a big reason for the increase in the crime rate is the “riff-raff” the town is attracting due to the free meals provided by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi, which administers the temple. This, they allege, has led to a proliferation of “beggars, criminals and touts” flocking to Shirdi, many of whom work as commission agents for the hotels and other establishments that have mushroomed in the town. Locally known as ‘polishwalas’, they are also being blamed for the rise in cheating cases filed by devotees. The two accused in the February 3 murders also worked as polishwalas.