Subhas Chandra Bose didn’t die in air-crash, says secret French report

Mumbai: Two out of three commissions formed by the Indian government to unfold mystery of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death concluded that Bose died in an air-crash. The Mukherjee Commission (1999), which says Bose didn’t die in an air-crash, was rejected by the government but now a Paris-based historian has supported its findings saying Netaji was still alive in 1947.

JBP More, who recently stumbled upon a brief French secret service report dated December 11, 1947 at the National Archives of France, has come up with a finding that Bose didn’t die in an air crash and was still alive in 1947, said a report published in a leading English daily.

“It is not stated in the document that Subhas Chandra Bose died in the air crash in Taiwan. Instead, it is reported that Bose’s present whereabouts were unknown as late as December 1947, which again implies that the French did not buy the theory that Bose died in the air-crash on August 18, 1945,” said More, who teaches at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Economiques et Commerciales, Paris.

The gist of the matter for the French secret service, according to More, is that Bose did not die in the air crash on August 18, 1945, as commonly held. “But he escaped from Indochina alive and his whereabouts were unknown as late as December 11, 1947, as reported in the secret document. This implies that he was alive somewhere but not dead in 1947,” said More, quoting the report written for the “Haut Commisariat de France for Indochina “SDECE Indochinese Base BCRI No. 41283 csah Ex No. 616, under the title: “Archival Information on Subhas Chandra Bose.” “In this report, it is clearly stated that he was the ex-chief of the Indian Independence League and a member of Hikari Kikan, a Japanese organisation. It is further stated clearly that he escaped from Indochina, though it does not state how,” he said.