In grim fallout of a bitter turf war within the family of Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, a first cousin of the departed godman was arrested on Sunday.

Ganapathi Raju was arrested in SC/ST (prevention of atrocities Act) case lodged by the police on the complaint of Ratnakar, a powerful relative of Sai Baba.

Ironically, Raju is now in trouble after he blew the whistle on Ratnakar’s alleged siphoning of funds from the Sathya Sai Baba trust of which he is a member.

He had said that the latter had siphoned off crores of rupees and sold illegally a vast cache of gold and other jewellery donated to the trust, writing to draw the attention of the chief minister, the governor and investigating agencies towards the alleged fraud. Ratnakar had quickly denied the charges and his followers had taken out a rally in the streets of the town in protest. During the rally, some of the protestors attempted to enter Raju’s home. But before he could take them on, the protestors pulled a fast one him.

Raju and his son were arrested on charges of assaulting few men belonging to a SC community. These men are known loyalists of Ratnakar, the late Baba’s brother’s son. Ratnakar’s clout in Puttaparthi and his complete control over the affairs of the Trust are common knowledge.

Raju, however, claims that he was beaten up by the complainant and a few others. He was waylaid when he was approaching the police to seek protection from the mob.

The trouble in Puttaparthi seems to have started with Sai Baba Trust receiving an anonymous letter demanding Rs 25 lakh for Raju’s silence on the alleged irregularities.

Balakrishna, DIG, Ananthapur range, stated that Ganapathi Raju had approached them with a complaint last month. Raju had alleged in the complaint that the email was the handiwork of Ratnakar. He even said that the latter was “hell-bent” on destroying him for exposing his misdeeds.