Chandra Shekhar government had 'accepted' Netaji died in plane crash

A finding that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash was "accepted" by the Chandra Shekhar government in 1991, a document declassified on Saturday revealed.

On February 27, 1991 the then government decided that it would not set up another enquiry to probe the death of Bose, who raised the Indian National Army to free India from the British, accepting the two reports submitted by the Mukherjee Commission and the Khosla Commission which probed Bose's death.

These facts were highlighted in one of the 100 files on Bose that Prime Minister Narendra Modi declassified on Saturday.

Bose's death in an aircrash continues to be a mystery even after seven decades.

"It has already been accepted that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in the aircrash on August 18, 1945 at Taihoku in Taiwan. The ministry of home affairs is therefore, of the view that no useful purpose would be served by holding yet another enquiry or by bringing the ashes back to India at present as this might create unnecessary tension," a declassified home ministry note to the then cabinet read.

The note was approved by the cabinet committee of parliamentary affairs on February 27, 1991 and the matter was laid to rest.