Fresh probe needed into Netaji’s mysterious death: BJP

BJP president Rajnath Singh says when the BJP forms the government at the Centre, the party will order an inquiry

BJP president Rajnath Singh pays tribute to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary, in Cuttack on Thursday.

BJP national president Rajnath Singh on Thursday once again revived the debate over the controversy surrounding the death of legendary freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Visiting Netaji Birthplace museum at his ancestral home here on the occasion of the leader’s 117 birth anniversary, the BJP leader said a lot of research and investigation was required to ascertain the cause and nature of Netaji’s missing after the plane in which he was travelling crashed over Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

“When the BJP would form the government at Centre, we will order an enquiry into this mystery, which requires a lot of effort and research,” Mr Rajnath Singh said after garlanding the statue of Netaji here at the ancestral house of the celebrated leader that has been converted into a national museum over a decade now.

The Central government till date had instituted at least three judicial commissions to probe the matter and each time, for alleged non-cooperation from the government, the Commissions had to submit their unfinished reports that were subsequently rejected by the government.

The latest in this was the Justice Manoj Mukherjee Commission of Enquiry, which was set up in 1999. But Justice Mukherjee was forced to submit his unfinished report in 2006 when he insisted to probe into the Soviet connection of missing Netaji.

Earlier also the Shah Nawaz Commission report and Khosla Commission report were rejected by the government .

Justice Mukherjee had clearly said in his report that Netaji was dead but he did not die in the plane crash over Taiwan and the ashes in a Japanese temple are not of Netaji’s.

Justice Mukherjee for the first time had probed into the controversial Soviet connection and had said that Netaji was probably flown to USSR after the plane crash and did indeed survive till the end of World War-II.

The report had also suggested that more research was needed to unfold the Soviet angle of Netaji’s detention in a Siberian camp till about a year after his supposed death in the plane crash.