Congress formed trust to give money to Netaji's daughter

The secret files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose declassified on Saturday have revealed that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had created a trust in 1954 in favour of his daughter Anita providing a monthly maintenance of Rs.500.

According to the documents, the trust of Rs.2 lakh in favour of Anita Bose was created and executed on May 23, 1954 with then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then West Bengal chief minister B.C. Roy as the trustees.

"Dr. B. C. Roy and I signed and executed today a trust deed in favour of Subhas Chandra Bose's child in Vienna. I gave the original document to the office of the AICC for safe custody," reads a document signed by Nehru on May 23, 1954.

Subsequently, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a letter to Justice G. D. Khosla in 1978 had informed that "despite certain doubts being raised, it has been acknowledged that Emilie Schenkl was Subhas Bose's widow and Anita Schenkl his daughter".

The PMO in the letter also said that AICC was sending Rs.6,000 annually to Anita up to 1964 and stopped it in 1965 after her marriage.

The PMO's reply came when Khosla, who headed the inquiry commission to probe the disappearance of Netaji, sought to examine the panel's report after he was sued for defamation on his claims in his book that Anita was Netaji's daughter.