Bose family members, researchers debunk British website's claims on Netaji's death

Kolkata, Sep 12: Nixing the "disclosures" of a Britain-based website that had quoted an "ad interim report" sent by Japan confirming the "death" of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in a 1945 plane crash in Taiwan, a section of the revolutionary leader's family, researchers and admirers on Monday said the report had been placed before the Justice M.K. Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry probing his disappearance.

The "much hyped discovery" of the website Bosefiles.Info "had found its way into the public domain in 2002. The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry had numbered it as JMCI exhibit no 227 series in 2004", said Chitra Ghosh, Netaji's nice and deponent in the Commission.

The Mukherjee Commission, contradicting two earlier panels that looked into the leader's disappearance, for the first time debunked the air crash theory affirming the ashes at the Tokyo temple are not his.

"When Justice Mukherjee wrote to Taiwan asking for information about the air crash, the Taiwan authorities wrote back saying there were no reports of any air crash on August 18, 1945, or seven days before or after that date," said Ghosh.

The Netaji family member said it was significant that there were no photos of Netaji's last hours.

"Normally, when a great man passes away, we usually have at least one photo of his death. But that's not the case with Netaji."

Ghosh said with the Narendra Modi government starting the process of declassifying the so-long secret files on Netaji, albeit "very slowly", "we have to wait till all files are classified. Then we will get replies to a lot fo questions".

Netaji researcher Purabi Roy said Netaji had not died in the crash, and it was only stage-managed to enable him to escape to Russia.

Roy said she has spoken to Alexander Kolesnikov, a former major-general of the Warsaw Pact, who had accessed in 1996 the Soviet era files lying in the high-security Paddolsk Military Archive near Moscow.

Kolesnikov, who went through the files as part of the Indo-Russian cultural agreement, said then Soviet leader Josef Stalin and his cabinet were deliberating on options that centred around whether Bose "should be kept in Russia".

Members of the Netaji Bhabna Manch, which ordered the media meet, sought to know the fate of the Indian National Army treasury inclduign the huge amount of gold that Netaji carried with him. Netaji's grand nephew Chandra Bose and some other family members were also present at the media interaction.

IANS