People have the right to know about fate of Netaji: Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asserted on Sunday that people have the right to know what happened to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. It was the same day in 1945 when Netaji reportedly went missing.

"On this day, in 1945, Netaji went on a flight from Taihoku Airport in Taiwan, only to disappear forever. We still do not know what happened to him. People have a right to know about the great son of the soil," Banerjee tweeted. She added that the whereabouts of Netaji after he "disappeared" on August 18, 1945, are still not known.

The Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress government had declassified 64 files on Netaji in 2015, which were with the state Home department. Several reports have claimed that Netaji had boarded a plane from Taihoku Airport in Taiwan, which crashed leading to the death of the great leader. However, experts from time to time have come up with different theories about his disappearance and there has been no confirmation of his death.

Researcher and author Anuj Dhar has claimed that Japanese officers including Major-General Saburo Isoda, who headed the Hikari Kikan (Japanese liaison office responsible for Japanese relations with the Azad Hind Government), had discussed how to send Bose to Soviet Russia. The next day, Netaji reportedly died in the plane crash. "Was this a smokescreen for his escape?" he tweeted.

"Was #NetajiSubhasChandraBose burnt to death after air crash? Was he tortured and killed in Russia? Or did he return home as Gumnami Baba?! When #Gumnaami is released this October, you will get closer to unraveling India's most enduring mystery. #subhashchandrabose," he posted.

The Centre from time to time had constituted panels like the Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956, the Khosla Commission in 1970 and the Mukherjee Commission in 2005, to shed light on the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of Netaji, but none could render any answer.

"There are many inconsistencies about Netaji's death. It's imperative for the Central government to disclose the truth to stop spreading untruth," said Chandra Kumar Bose, a descendant of Netaji. Bose has also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through his Twitter handle to appeal to Abe Shinzo to release 3 critical files held by Japan to solve the mystery behind Netaji's death. "This is essential to eliminate the false propaganda spread by various people projecting Netaji as Babas," he tweeted.

It may be mentioned that on September 2016, the Narendra Modi government had declassified investigative reports of the Japanese government which concluded that Bose had died in a plane crash in Taiwan.