The All India legal Aid Forum on Saturday demanded that the Central Government soon make public the secret files relating to the ‘mysterious’ deaths of three national heroes, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee and lal Bahadur Shastri, soon.
Earlier, reports of two committee endorsing Bose’s death on August 18, 1945 in a plane crash in Japan were not accepted. The KGB, the then intelligence branch of the Soviet Russia which was dissolved and whose files were opened to all in 1990, gave clear-cut evidence that Bose was in Russia after August 18, 1945.
“Unfortunately, the Central Government is yet to write an official letter to the Russian Government for disclosing the top secret KGB files,” a Press release issued by the Justice SM Soni-headed legal aid forum lamented.
Stating that different research workers are getting the KGB documents through unofficial sources, the forum demanded that the Government declassify 36 files regarding Netaji’s death, write officially to the Russian Government to disclose the KGB files, make public contribution of Netaji-led Azad Hind Fauz in the country’s freedom struggle and disclose properties of the Fauz, which amounted to Rs 72,000 crore.
The forum alleged that the Congress and Congress-led Governments did not give proper respect to Netaji during their tenures.
“After the Independence, specially the Gandhi-Nehru family and Congress party had taken reluctant attitude about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in every manner and Congress-led Central Government did not give proper respect to Netaji,” the forum alleged.
Regarding freedom fighter Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee and lal Bahadur Shastri’s deaths, the forum said Mukherjee’s reported death on June 23, 1953 in Kashmir and Shastri’s demise in Tashkent of Russia were mysterious too.