For years, the death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has been the subject of conjecture and rumor.

The Times of India reports that a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghosh admitted a PIL praying that the the Mukherjee Commission be reopened. There is also apparently another writ petition challenging the Centre’s rejection of the Mukherjee Commission report which pending before the bench.

According to Government of India Notification No. S O 339 (E) dated May 14, 1999, Justice Manoj Mukherjee, a retired Supreme Court judge, was appointed to enquire into all the facts and circumstances related to the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945 and into subsequent developments including:

1. Whether Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is dead or alive?
2. If he is dead whether he died in the plane crash, as alleged?
3. Whether the ashes in the Japanese temple are ashes of Netaji?
4. Whether he has died in any other manner at any other place and, if so, when and how?
5. If he is alive, in respect of his whereabouts.

 

The Commission submitted its report on November 8, 2005 in which it said:

1. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is dead
2. He did not die in the plane crash, as alleged
3. The ashes in the Japanese temple are not of Netaji
4. In the absence of any clinching evidence a positive answer cannot be given
5. Answer already given above

 

The Government did not agree with the findings of the Commission that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did not die in the plane crash and that the ashes in the Japanese Renoki temple are not the ashes of Netaji.

A Russian general had apparently sworn under oath that he had seen documentation which referred to a live Subhas Chandra Bose in Russia.

There were questions regarding the denial of access of archives in Moscow to the Commission. In response to these questions, the Minister of State in the Ministry Of External Affairs, Rao Inderjit Singh, said that the Commission, during its visit to the Russian Federation from 20 to 30 September 2005, visited seven archives.

The Minister said that despite the fact that Russia’s Archive Law, 2004, which is applicable not only to representatives of foreign countries but also Russian citizens, allows access to classified archives, without any exception, only to a strictly defined category of officials, taking into consideration the interest of the Indian side, the Russian government had competent authorities conduct a detailed study of these archives and copies of all documents found with the name of S C Bose, had been handed over to the Indian side. These, in turn, had been given to the Justice Mukherjee Commission.

There have been a number of (conspiracy) theories surrounding the disappearance of Netaji and the PIL filed appears to be yet another attempt to discover what happened to him.