Secret letter claims Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose may have married a second time

While Netajis’ grandnephew and TMC MP Sugata Bose said that the claim was ‘absolutely’ absurd, others pointed out similarities between Emilie and Netaji’s ‘other wife’, indicating the possibility of a “mixup” by the intelligence agencies.

The question that everyone asked, however, was “where is the lost manuscript?”.

The secret letter notes that, “It is learnt that Aurobinda Bose, during his last visit to Prague in connection with the World Students’ Conference in 1947, became the guest of a Czech lady who supplied him three parts of manuscript autobiography of Subhas Ch. Bose; the last part contained his observations regarding the Cripps Mission etc…This lady also gave Aurobinda a writing case of Subhas Chandra Bose along with some other small articles of personal use of him. This lady instructed Aurobinda to publish the first two parts of the autobiography of Subhas Bose and not to publish now the last one which contained matters which would conclusively prove that Subhas Bose had not died in the plane crash in which he was said to have been seriously injured and subsequently died in a Japanese Hospital,” the report said.

“It is further learnt that Subhas Bose married this Czech lady during his European visit during the last war and he had got a daughter by name ‘Nima’ by this lady. It is also said that thirty pounds of food-stuff are sent to this lady every month from Bombay,” the report says.

Another intercept, recorded in the Calcutta Police Security Control’s Weekly Survey — dated May 4, 1946 — refers to Schenkl as a person who “claims to be the widow of Subhas Chandra Bose”. It added that she “joined Subhas Bose in Berlin in April 1941 and remained with him until the autumn of 1942″ and that she had “worked as Subhash Bose’s secretary in 1934 when he was in Germany writing his book “The Indian Struggle”.”

The notes adds, “Bose proposed to her and they were married in January 1942. On November 29, 1942, a daughter was born… Emilie Schenkl returned to Vienna from Berlin in September so as to avoid talk…”

After news of Netaji’s death reached Schenkl in 1945, she wrote a letter to the Bose family that was subsequently intercepted by the West Bengal intelligence bureau. In it, she makes it clear that she was not “asking for financial aid” and ended up giving a “description of her daughter and mentions the shock she felt when she heard of Subhas Bose’s death”, the 1946 note added.

A government official pointed out, “Not only does Anita sound like Nima, but the fact that this Czech lady had a copy of Netaji’s book makes it likely that this lady is indeed Emilie. As her secretary, she must have had the manuscript of the copy. The real question is as to where is the lost manuscript?”