Subhash Chandra Bose plane crash: An enigma that continues to haunt

Kolkata Did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose die of thirddegree burns on August 18 1945 after his plane crashed in Formosa now Taiwan or did he survive and escape to Siberia Or was the crasha mere hoax to help him flee to safety The questions have been haunting agitating and engaging Indians in particular Bengalis for 70 years but the mystery endures even todayA section of Netajis descendants including his daughter Anita Pfaff as also some Indian National Army INA veterans hold that the revolutionary leader perished in the accident and his ashes have been interred at Tokyos Renkoji templeBut a large number of Netajis admirers researchers and family members dont buy the theoryDuring her visit to Kolkata in 2013 Pfaff said she was convinced that he died when the Mitsubishi Ki21 Japanese heavy bomber Netaji boarded at Saigon with his close aide Col Habibur Rahman on August 17 1945 purportedly to shift base to the erstwhile Soviet Union and continue his fight for Indias independence crashed in Japaneseoccupied FormosaIt would be the perfect homecoming for him if the ashes are brought to India His ashes should be immersed in the river Ganges Pfaff had saidNetajis grand nephew and Harvard University professor Sugata Bose is another big votary of the crash theory and has detailed his viewpoint in his book His Majestys Opponent Bose bases his arguments on overwhelming evidence citing the testimony of six of the seven survivors of the crash as also that of doctors and paramedics who treated Netaji at the Taipei Military HospitalThe Indian governments three attempts to unravel the mystery by constituting probe panels Shah Nawaz Khan Committee 1956 G D Khosla Committee 1970 and the Justice M K Mukehrjee Commission which submitted its report in 2006 have only fuelled the debateWhile the first two panels concluded Bose perished in the Taipei crash the Mukherjee Commission debunked the theory The government however debunked the Mukherjee Commissions findingsResearcher and author Anuj Dhar stands by the Mukherjee CommissionBoth to the Mukherjee Commission as well as in letters written to me the Taiwan authorities have stated that according to their records no plane crash occurred on Aug 18 1945 Dhar told IANSThere are many secret files that can prove the air crash theory was planted by the Japanese and Netaji to facilitate his escape to RussiaLakshmi Sahgal nee Swaminathan who led the allwoman Rani Jhansi Regiment of the INA supported the crash theoryShe claimed in an interview in 2005 that the Japanese had destroyed all records before their surrender after losing the second World WarAs far as the Taiwan governments denial of any air crash during that period on its soil is concerned all I can say is that the Japanese had destroyed all records They did not want one bit of paper to fall into the hands of the Allied forces that could prove as evidence for wartime crimes Sahgal had saidThe answer to the enigma many believe lies hidden in scores of secret government filesBesides Dhar and his Mission Netaji a host of Netajis descendants have been demanding publication of over 100 such files claimed to be in possession of various departments of the central government including the Prime Ministers Office PMO and 64 classified documents with the West Bengal governmentAll information on record from Indian Japanese British and Taiwanese sources is unambiguous that the man who died in the Nanmon military hospital in Taihoku Taipei in August 1945 was a Japanese soldier named Ichiro Okura said DharNetajis grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose concurredThere are several secret Japanese government dossiers that are lying with the Indian government where Okura has been named Okuras name appears in the official records accessed by various authorities Chandra Kumar told IANSCol Rahman a survivor of the alleged crash recounting the last hours of Netaji Bose before the Shah Nawaz panel affirmed he died at a hospital after the crash But Dhar and Chandra Kumar claim Col Rahman was only following Netajis ordersColonel Rahmans interrogation reports declassified in 1997 clearly state that he had not told the truth In fact in close quarters including the Bose family he had confided that he did so following Netajis orders said DharNetajis elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose had questioned Col Rahman and rejected his crash theorySarat Chandra Bose rejected Col Rahmans crash theory after questioning for hours Chandra Kumar said quoting his father and Sarat Boses son Amiya NathBesides Sarat Bose had also come across American intelligence reports saying Netaji safely reached Manchuria in China bordering the USSRJustice Radha Binode Pal of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East had told Sarat Bose about American intelligence report that was shown to him by an American judge at the tribunal The report clearly stated that Netaji safely reached Manchuria on August 18 1945 Chandra Kumar maintained