Panel ignored nod for DNA testing of ashes: Netaji's kin

PTI

Kolkata, January 23

A new translation of a letter in Japanese written by the chief priest of Tokyo’s Renkoji temple, keeper of an urn containing ashes and bone fragments believed to be those of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, to the Indian government in 2005 revealed that permission was given for DNA test to the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission.

However, for inexplicable reasons, this portion of the letter was not translated and a bland edited English version was attached to the Justice Mukherjee Commission’s report on the disappearance of Bose as evidence that “on account of the Temple Authorities reticence... the commission could not proceed further (on the issue of DNA tests)”.

The commission later used this to conclude that the ashes were not of Netaji’s, giving credence to speculations that he may have survived to become an ascetic or prisoner in a Russian prison.

Madhuri Bose, the legendary freedom fighter’s grandniece (grand-daughter of his brother Sarat Bose), said, “We recently commissioned the fresh translation after we found inconsistencies in the Mukherjee Commission report and found several paragraphs in the letter written in Japanese missing from the official English version in the Justice Mukherjee Inquiry Report.” —

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