New documents show Netaji died in air crash: Grandnephew

 Kolkata, December 4

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew and researcher Ashish Ray claimed on Sunday that he had "irrefutable evidence" to prove that the revolutionary leader had died in an air crash in Taipei (Taiwan) on August 18, 1945.

Demanding that the ashes in the Renkoji temple should be brought back to India, Ray said: "There are three reports which clearly state that Bose had died in the air crash in 1945 and did not have the opportunity to enter Soviet Union".    

Two reports by the Japanese government have clearly stated that he died in the air crash and another report that is lying with the Russian state archives also says unambiguously that Netaji did not have the opportunity to enter the erstwhile Soviet Union on 1945 or afterwards, Ray said.

"He was never held as prisoner in USSR," he said.

Ray said howvever that Netaji might have plans to move to Russia as he had always believed that Russia, a Communist state, would support his cause to liberate India from the British rule.

"He felt Japan would not be able to protect him because it had surrendered. He felt although he might be detained in Soviet Union, he stood a better chance of convincing the Soviet authorities about his mission to liberate India," Ray added.

Coming to contrary views on the issue, Ray said though he understood the emotional attachment with Netaji, there was a need to confront the truth.

"For how long can we be in denial, irrespective of so much evidence that points to his death in plane crash? We have accounts of six or seven persons, including Habibur Rehman. I think if possible a DNA test of the ashes in Renkiji temple should be done and the ashes should be brought back to India," Ray said. — PTI