NEW DELHI, MARCH 25: The Centre proposes to set up a fresh judicial inquiry into the reported death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in an aircrash at Taihoku (Formosa) on August 18, 1945.A decision to recommend setting up of a fresh probe into the circumstances leading to the aircrash and the "mystery" behind Netaji's reported death was taken by the Home Ministry after a meeting Home Minister L K Advani had with several associates of Netaji here today.Advani told a press conference that the Home Ministry had decided to approach the Union Cabinet in this regard "shortly". It could be taken up either at tomorrow's scheduled Cabinet meeting or the next one, he said.Today's meeting was attended by nine close associates of Netaji including Colonel G S Dhillon, Dr Sisir kumar Bose, Justice (retd) R S Narula and D B Kalamankar. Colonel Laxmi Sehgal, who led the `Rani Jhansi Brigade' of the Indian National Army (INA), sent her comments in writing on the issue.Attorney General Soli Sorabjee and secretaries of ministries of Defence, Home, External Affairs, and principal secretary to the Prime Minister Brijesh Mishra also attended the meeting.The meeting came in the wake of a resolution passed by the West Bengal Assembly in December 1998 and an April 1998 directive of the Calcutta High Court asking the Centre to order a "vigorous" probe, if necessary by a commission of inquiry, into the controversy.Disposing of a public interest petition, the HC had asked the Centre to look into whether Netaji was killed in the crash, whether the ashes in Japan's Renkoji temple belonged to Netaji, whether he was dead or alive, whether he died in any other manner or in any other place and his whereabouts in case he was alive.Earlier, two inquiries were set up by the Government - one headed by Netaji's associate Shahnawaz Khan in 1956 and another by Justice G D Khosla in 1970. Findings of both commissions were similar as they concluded that Netaji had indeed died in the crash, Advani said.Though the Government accepted these reports, the views did not find universal acceptance and a sizeable section of people were sceptical of the findings, he said.Subsequently in 1978, Janata Party Member of Parliament Samar Guha, who was also associated with Netaji, had raised the matter in the Lok Sabha demanding another probe. The then prime minister Morarji Desai responded to this stating that since the two inquiries, "reasonable doubts have been cast on the correctness of the conclusions reached in the two reports and various important contradictions in the testimony of witnesses have been noticed."In the light of those doubts and contradictions and those records, the Government finds it difficult to accept that the earlier conclusions are decisive," Desai had told Guha.
