Russian government denies knowledge about Netaji's death

In a momentous move, the Russian Federation opened secret military archives of its defence ministry to confirm that it had no records on the arrest or killing of Subhas Chandra Bose.

The ministry gave this information in a letter to researcher l Joychandra Singh who has been probing the issue for the past 13 years.

Singh said it took more than a decade to get any official reply from the Russian Federation on Netaji's last days.

The first letter from Russia was received on October 15, 1996, and the latest missive on March 20, 1997 confirmed that the Russians has no records or information on Netaji's fate.

Singh was researching Netaji's reported death in a plane crash on August 18, 1945 at Taipei as well as the claim by some Indian leaders that Bose was arrested by the Soviet army after the crash and killed in the USSR. Singh, however, believes that Netaji died in the crash and that his ashes are lying in a golden casket at the Renkoji temple in Tokyo.

He revealed that P V Narasimha Rao, as minister of external affairs, had sent him a letter on behalf of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, requesting him to investigate the issue and end the controversy.

The letter read, 'I fully agree with you that there should be a national consensus on the question of bringing the remains of Netaji from the Renkoji temple, Tokyo before the Government of India takes a formal decision to avoid a controversy at a later stage.'

After receiving the official letter, Singh visited several countries including Japan, the US, the UK, Germany, France, Taiwan and USSR to study official records. During his prolonged research, he collected vital documents and several unpublished photographs.

Earlier, Netaji's nephew Dr Sisir Kumar Bose had conveyed to Rajiv Gandhi on September 26, 1985, that he had no objection to the transportation of Netaji's ashes from Japan. Netaji's nephew Ardhendu Bose had agreed to bring the ashes.

Singh also showed clippings of Amrit Bazar Patrika where Amiyanath Bose, the former Indian ambassador to Burma and another of Netaji's nephews, had claimed at a press conference that Bose was killed by Stalin in the USSR and not in a plane crash. Amiyanath Bose asked the Government of India to ascertain the circumstances under which Netaji stayed in Soviet custody.

UNI