As reported in zeenews.com by Bureau Report, on 23 January 2008:
Zee News - Netaji was killed in aircrash: Documents
Netaji was killed in aircrash: Documents
New Delhi, Jan 22: As the circumstances surrounding the death of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose remains shrouded in mystery, official documents declassified by the government say the revolutionary leader was a victim of an aircrash on August 18, 1945.
Bose, whose birth centenary is tomorrow, was sitting next to the petrol tank of a K-21 heavy bomber aircraft when it lost control and crashed, according to documents made public by the Union Home Ministry following a Right to Information (
RTI) application.
Contents of 91 documents have been put in public domain while the Home Ministry has declined to do so in respect of over 100 documents.
The report of Counter Intelligence Corps, who questioned Bose`s close aide Habib ur Rahman, said that the plane carrying Netaji after its take off from Taihoku (Taipei) in Formosa (Taiwan), could not gain much altitude, when he had heard a terrific explosion leaving the plane "vibrating violently."
Rahman told the investigators that the plane in which he was accompanying Bose, lost its control and went into flames after it took-off from Taihoku in the afternoon of August 18, 1945.
"...The seat Bose occupied in the aircraft was beside a petrol tank at the time of the crash the tank exploded, spreading the burning fuel on Bose`s clothing," the Counter Intelligence Corps said in a report dated September 29, 1945.
The declassified report was revealed to a Delhi based organisation `Mission Netaji` which had invoked its Right to Information to get from the Home Ministry documents relating to Netaji`s mysterious death.
Netaji met British Governor of Assam here and put forth the claim to form a Congress government. "Sensing the Governor`s unwillingness, he showed his true capability and threatened him that if his demands were not met, Congress governments all over India would resign," Bawri recalled.
Finally, the Governor agreed to swear in a Congress government under the premiership of Gopinath Bordoloi on November 18, 1938.
Recalling his historic drive with Bose, Bawri, said, "I also took him on a sight-seeing trip in Shillong. He was particularly interested in visiting the house where Rabindranath Tagore stayed and I took him to Rilbong, where the poet laureate composed some of his greatest literary pieces."
Bawri also recalled that Netaji did not mention that he had been to Shillong before, especially during his fairly long stay at the salubrious pine city for regaining health in 1927 after he was released from Mandalay Jail in Burma.
In the report, it was stated that after the air crash, Bose was lying by the plane when Rahman went and removed Netaji`s clothes that were left burning as a result of the explosion.
Even though Bose had suffered burn injuries apart from injuries to his head and neck, he "recovered sufficiently" to carry on a conversation thereafter, Rahman, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Indian National Army(INA) told investigators.
Apart from Rahman`s interview report, classified documents on related diplomatic correspondence, telegrams sent from External Affairs Ministry to PMO and selected letters of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were also revealed.
The disclosure comes in wake of the Central Information Commission`s (
CIC) order directing disclosure of exhibited documents relied on by Shah Nawaz Khan Committee (1956) and Justice G D Khosla Commission (1970-74).
In his
RTI plea, Sayantan Dasgupta of Mission Netaji, cited 202 exhibits considered by the two inquiry panels and sought a disclosure of the same. He sought the documents to find out as to what were the documentary evidences that were considered by the two panels in declaring Bose a victim of an aircrash in 1945.
Notably, these two inquiry reports were divergent to the findings of the recent Justice Mukherjee Commission, that had contradicted their findings.
In its order of July five last year,
CIC termed as "facile hypothesis" the Centre`s decision to deny the documents on gro und that it could lead to a "possible unrest" in Netaji`s home state of West Bengal.
It, however, gave Home Ministry the liberty to examine and analyse specific documents.