This week, after seven years of inquiry, the Mukherjee Commission concluded that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose didn’t die in a plane crash. Evidence shows otherwise, writes Netaji’s grand-nephew SUGATA BOSE. Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University, Bose lists compelling facts that nail Mukherjee’s inaccuracy — and calls for an end to this ‘merciless exploitation’ of a national sentiment

In October, 2002, I received a bizarre letter from the Mukherjee Commission asking me to donate 1 ml of blood for a DNA match with “one Gumnami Baba” who “some persons” had claimed was “none other than Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.” I replied stating that a such a suggestion was a gross insult to the memory of the great leader. “If the Commission feels that it must expend its time, energy and public money following up even the most preposterous claims made by cranks or opportunists,” I wrote, “I regret that I cannot be of any help to it.” I offered to be of assistance if the Commission was prepared to pursue a more credible line of investigation, something that it was clearly not minded to do.

After the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, Netaji left Singapore for Bangkok by aeroplane with several of his associates. There was some discussion in Bangkok on August 16, 1945 that he should go into hiding in Thailand. However, Netaji left for Saigon on the morning of August 17, 1945.

He departed Saigon with Col Habibur Rahman of the I.N.A. that afternoon in a Japanese bomber and halted at Touraine for the night. He left Touraine at 5 am on August 18, 1945 and arrived in Taipei early in the afternoon.

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