Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose didn’t die in air crash: French report

The death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has always remained a deep rooted mystery, but that did not stopped scholars from all around to look through this never ending quest.

Paris-based historian J B P More has now given a new shape to this enigma with a brief French secret service report dated December 11, 1947 at the National Archives of France, which states that Bose didn't die in an air crash and was still alive in 1947.

More, who teaches at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Economiques et Commerciales, Paris said, “It is not stated in the document that Subhas Chandra Bose died in the air crash in Taiwan. Instead, it is reported that Bose's present whereabouts were unknown as late as December 1947, which again implies that the French did not buy the theory that Bose died in the air-crash on August 18, 1945."

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“But he escaped from Indochina alive and his whereabouts were unknown as late as December 11, 1947, as reported in the secret document. This implies that he was alive somewhere but not dead in 1947”, More added, quoting the report written for the “Haut Commisariat de France for Indochina "SDECE Indochinese Base BCRI No. 41283 csah Ex No. 616, under the title: "Archival Information on Subhas Chandra Bose.”

Earlier, the Indian government had appointed three commissions to solve this cliff-hanger. The Shah Nawaz Committee (1956) and Khosla Commission (1970) said that Bose died in an air crash on August 18, 1945 at Taihoku airport in Japanese-occupied Taipei, while the Mukherjee Commission (1999) concluded that he did not die in an air-crash. The government, however, rejected the findings of the Mukherjee Commission.