Secret Documents on Netaji

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Advani holds talks on procuring Netaji documents

 

N.K. Mukherjee commission on Netaji Subhas Bose death in 1945 Air

crash in search for secret documents from Russia and Britain

 

AT a high-level meeting Union Home Minister L.K. Advani and Justice

M.K. Mukherjee, Chairman of the Commission inquiring into the

disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, discussed the prospects

of getting documents from other countries such as the United Kingdom,

United States and Russia.

 

 

Sources in Delhi said that Advani also discussed the problem of

procuring sensitive documents from these countries which, the

Commission felt, could shed light on the mystery shrouding the

reported air crash on August 18, 1945 in Taihoku, Japan.

 

 

Incidentally, the Commission, which just returned from the UK,

examined about 774 declassified documents there and may plead for a

second visit to examine some more documents.

 

The Commission also suggested that the Central government ''take

special initiative to write to its counterpart in Britain to let the

Commission see top secret documents scheduled to be declassified in

2021.''

 

 

While the Commission isn't talking about its experience in Britain,

some scholars who have taken part in the proceedings, confirmed that

officials met Bose's British biographer Hugh Toyee and Lord Peter

Archer who played a crucial role in getting quite a few documents

declassified in 1997-98.

 

 

According to these scholars, a portion of Col Figgs' report is not

available with the British archives. Col Figgs undertook an inquiry

into Bose's alleged death in the Taihoku air crash on behalf of the

Allied Forces in south-east Asia.

 

 

''What was more,'' a scholar claimed on the condition of anonymity,

that ''not original but only copy of the report is available in the

British archives with a portion missing''.

 

 

Incidentally, during a recent press conference, chairman Mukherjee

had said that they are yet to get response from the Russian

government. Some scholars, who deposed before the Commission earlier,

pointed to Bose's presence in the Soviet Union after the end of World

War II.

 

 

Even a top secret letter, dated 23rd August 1945 (eight days after

announcement of Bose's reported death in the crash) dispatched from

India by R.F. Mudie, a home member, in one of his six suggestions

said: ''Leave him (Bose) where he is and don't ask for his

surrender.''