Probe Faizabad angle of Netaji mystery, RTI activists to UP government

New Delhi, 2 February, 2010: Calling former Supreme Court judge M K Mukherjee's on camera admission as "eye-opener", three Delhi-based RTI activists have called for an inquiry by the UP government into the Faizabad angle to the Netaji mystery.

In an upcoming documentary on Subhas Chandra Bose, Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee has been shown to make "strictly off the record" assertion that he "strongly believes" that Bhagwanji of Faizabad was Subhas Bose in disguise. In saying so, the judge, who did not know that a camera was rolling next to him, has differed from his official report which had in 2005 opined that there was no "clinching evidence" to prove that the mysterious monk who lived in separate parts of Uttar Pradesh from 1955 to 1985 was the legendary freedom fighter in disguise.

Chandrachur Ghose, Anuj Dhar and Sayantan Dasgupta, who have access many Bose related records through RTI, have appealed to UP Chief Minister Ms Mayawati to set up a high-level panel to scan over 2000 documents and objects currently lying in the custody of District Magistrate of Faizabad. Those items are bristling with evidence which must be weighed against the accounts of Bhaganji's living followers in UP and Kolkata, they claim. They also say they fear for the objects' safety now that "Justice Mukherjee has spilled the beans".

"Since the UPA government has already rejected the Mukherjee Commission's basic finding that Netaji did not die in the so-called plane crash, we do not trust it to approach this issue with an open mind. Ms Mayawati has nothing against Netaji, so we trust that she will help the nation to get to the truth," says Chandrachur Ghose, who is waiting to receive copies of Bhagwanji-related documents under RTI following a favourable ruling by former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah.

"After the reported death of Bhagwanji, an eyewash of a police inquiry was undertaken by then Congress-led government," says Anuj Dhar, credited with obtaining information from Taiwan government that no air crash involving Bose had ever took place in that country. The revelation turned the official air crash theory on its head. Dhar later highlighted similarities in Bhagwanji and Bose in his book Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery [Mrityu Se Vapsi: Netaji ka Rahahsya in Hindi]
"It is my information that even in 1985, the local police found Bhagwanji's handwriting similar to Netaji's and yet they filed a report which was just a sham. Lucknow asked them to not to go ahead with further inquiry," he says, adding "Mayawati government can expose the cover up".
India's leading handwriting expert B Lal Kapoor submitted an extensive report with Mukherjee Commission proving that authorship of Bose and Bhagwanji's English and Bangla writings was common.

"We have little trust in Central government," says Sayantan Dasgupta, charging that the government destroyed evidence on the issue and did not help Mukherjee's inquiry properly so "any new inquiry must not be held under the aegis of Central government, specially the one headed by Congress party".

"We quite understand that on the face of it, Bhagwanji angle appears quite unbelievable, but when a handwriting expert and former Supreme Court judge make such conclusions, the least that we can do it is to dig deeper," Ghose remarks.

"There have been claims that Bhagwanji was an impostor, so we would like to know the facts. An inquiry will get us to the truth and bring a closure to the mystery," says Dhar.

MN's letter to Ms Mayawati

Read FAQ on Bose mystery