Sinster campaign on to prove Gumnami baba as Netaji : Family

Some family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Thursday alleged that a "sinister campaign" is on by certain sections in the country to prove that 'Gumnami Baba' was the nationalist leader and urged the Centre to release all Intelligence Bureau (IB) files on the recluse.

Claiming that it is a "criminal offense" to term 'Gumnami Baba' as Netaji in disguise without any documentary or photographic evidence to support it, BJP leader and Bose's grand nephew Chandra Kumar Bose said the Centre must also start an inquiry to find out who are supporting such false campaigns against Bose.

"There has been an on-going sinister campaign to dishonour Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as being one 'Gumnami Baba of Faizabad' who reportedly lived in Uttar Pradesh since the 1950s for over three decades. The fact is Gumanmi Baba was not Netaji," Chandra Kumar Bose, who is also the BJP state unit vice-president told a press conference here.

The "sinister campaign" is an attempt to damage the image and legacy of Netaji in the eyes of the present and future generations, he said and demanded that the Intelligence Bureau files on Gumnami Baba be declassified to bring out the truth.

"That the so-called 'Gumnami Baba', who reportedly died in 1985 leaving his teeth among his trunk load of personal belongings, was not Netaji was established in a scientific DNA test," Chandra Bose said.

Doctored photographs of Netaji as Gumnami Baba were being circulated online to establish the propaganda, he added.

Gumnami Baba was a reclusive sadhu and his identity is unknown even 34 years after his death.

The nationalist leader, who was among the foremost Independence movement leaders, had commanded the Indian National Army and had reportedly died in an aircrash at Taihoku airport on August 18, 1945. This was not accepted by some members of his family.