PM committed to unravel mystery behind Netaji's disappearance, says Chandra Bose

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand-nephew Chandra Bose on Sunday said the NDA Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of Netaji, adding that he will be meeting the Prime Minister to raise the issue since the latter is going to Russia by end of this month.

"If we have to find the truth on Netaji's disappearance, we need to approach the Russian authorities to really find out who this Tashkent man(Netaji look-alike who appeared with Shastri) was. I think the NDA government is sincere and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to unravel the mystery of the liberator of India, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose," Chandra Bose told ANI here.

"We are going to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 16 to present a book, 'The Bose brothers and Indian independence'. During our discussions, we will again raise the issue because we understand that the Prime Minister is going to Russia by end of December.

We would request him to take up the issue with Russian President. President Putin must be requested to open erstwhile KGB files. Till such time the erstwhile KGB files are not declassified and put on the public domain, we will not be able to find conclusive evidence to establish the fact of Netaji's presence in Russia," he added.

Bose also said that the death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri "still remains a mystery".

"Lal Bahadur Shashtri's grandson Sanjay Nath Singh had told me that when Shastri ji visited Tashkent, on the last day(Jan 11, 1966), Shastri ji had called Sanjay's mother and told her that he had met somebody in Russia and will disclose his identity once he is back, and the people of India would be elated to know about this person. It is very unfortunate that Shastri ji expired only an hour after the telephonic conversation. This still remains a mystery who that person was," he said.

Netaji researchers have produced a forensic face-mapping report by a British expert that has found strong resemblance between Bose and a man photographed with former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri during the Indo-Pak peace talks in Tashkent in 1966.

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The photograph is being held as evidence that Netaji didn't die in the plane crash in Taihoku in 1945 and validates a recent claim by Shastri's grandson Siddharth Nath Singh that Shastri had met someone who was considered an icon back home, while in the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, the Modi government has begun the process of declassification of Netaji files and the first batch of 33 files were handed over to the National Archives in October and would be made public on January 23, 2016, Netaji Subhash Chandra's birth anniversary.