The general secretary of All India Legal Aid Forum Jaideep Mukherjee has demanded the Centre to declassify 39 secret files regarding Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the earliest so as to ensure that the long-lingering mystery hanging on his death is unravelled once and for all.
Addressing the media persons here on Thursday, Mukherjee said that it is unfortunate that no authentic information on the death of Netaji has been given to the nation. He claimed that the news of the death of Netaji in an air crash on August 18, 1945 had been a planned rumour.
Mukherjee said that the first and the second commissions set up under chairmanship of Shah Nawaz Khan and Justice G D Khosla had not been accepted by the elder brother of Netaji Suresh Chand Bose. “Besides, the former Prime Minister Morarji Desai rejected these reports,” he said and added that the mystery remaining opaque, a third commission headed by Justice Manoj Mukherjee had been constituted following a directive by Kolkata high court. “This commission in its report said that death of Netaji did not occur on August 18, 1945 as claimed and it is thus responsibility of the Government of India to give authentic information about his death,” he said.
Mukherjee claimed that as per the files of Russian intelligence agency KGB, Netaji had taken refuge in Russia on August 18, 1945. He said that many researchers had claimed over the years that Netaji had died in a jail in Siberia. Mukherjee said that apart from releasing all secret papers pertaining to Netaji, the government should declare 23 January, the birthday of Netaji, as the national holiday.