Subhas Chandra Bose did not die in air crash: Saini

Rupnagar, Sep 4: All India Forward Bloc national secretary VP Saini today contested the claim of a London-based website that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945, terming it "wrong" and "part of the conspiracy" against the revolutionary leader.

He also refuted the claim of the website that it had access to vital declassified documents regarding Netaji's disappearance.

Saini, also the Netaji Subhas Kranti Manch chief, claimed that the documents mentioned by the website were from a book, titled 'Conspirators, Abductors and Killers of Netaji', which was written more than 24 years ago.

He said whatever information and documents on the alleged air crash, in which Netaji was feared killed, were supplied by Japan, had been proved wrong. He said Taiwan had informed India in writing that no air crash had occurred at Taihoku on August 18, 1945. Hence, there was no question of Netaji's death in it.

Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry had also reported that Netaji did not die in the air crash, Saini said and accused certain members of the Bose family of "joining hands" with the government and others in the "conspiracy against Netaji" because of their "personal reasons or vested interests".

He alleged that the Centre, with the connivance of some members of the Bose family, was trying to bring to India the "so-called" ashes of Netaji from Renkoji temple in Tokyo but the followers of the revolutionary leader will never let that happen. He appealed to the Centre to try to find the truth of Netaji's fate "honestly" and give the national hero his due.

PTI