Letters: A memorable meeting

With reference to the report, "Was Netaji alive even after 1945?" (September 19), numerous stories have surfaced, particularly in the past few days, about how the great life of this 'Prince of Patriots' ended. I have my own story to narrate.

On April 22, 1946 - eight months after the plane in which Subhas Chandra Bose was travelling allegedly crashed in what was then Formosa - I had the fortune of meeting Col Habibur Rehman Khan, a former Indian National Army officer, who claimed to have been Bose's companion on that fateful flight. I had a one-to-one meeting with him in the drawing room of his uncle's house in Alwar (then the capital of a princely state). Col Khan gave a tearful account of the tragedy and showed his hands bearing burns sustained while attempting, without success, to save his leader's life. He gave me his autograph, which I still preserve.

According to media reports, Col Khan met Mahatma Gandhi before my meeting with the colonel, and narrated the same story to Gandhi, which the latter accepted as the true account of the tragedy.

Col Khan hailed from a region that became part of Pakistan after the Partition. He is said to have fought for Pakistan in the First Kashmir War (1947). There was no serious challenge to Col Khan's story about Bose till his (colonel's) death in 1978. I believed it then and believe it now. All other versions are motivated.

R C Mody New Delhi

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