By Anuj Dhar

Bhagwanji's remarks on "Netaji's movement in the post-1945 crash period" conform with independent evidence that point to the leader's escape through Diren into Soviet Russia.

Bhagwanji's follower of many years, Durga Prasad Pandey, remembers two of the former's statements on the subject:

No plane took off that day. You check the log book…, and

Diren se jeep main gaye tha ( I went through Diren (Manchuria) in a jeep)

Incidentally, the British government in 1945, had never fully believed in the crash theory. An extract from a top Secret letter No SLO/CC/1 on March 1, 1946, reads: "If it is a deception, it is one which has been extremely carefully and ingeniously organised. All available evidence as to the efficiency of the Japanese Intelligence Organisation indicate that its efforts are comparatively amateurish, and we have never seen any scheme of such elaboration ever attempted..."

Bhagwanji's note found among his belongings, also point to the veracity of the Diren-Russia theory. The note says, …one American intelligence officer, Alfred Wagg, knew and he informed his government".

Incidentally, after Netaji's death, Wagg, who represented The Chicago Tribune, came to Delhi and had an argument with then Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, an incident that was reported in the press. Wag insisted that he had seen Bose days after the crash in Saigon (Taiwan).

(HindustanTimes.com contacted The Chicago Tribune recently and found that Alfred Wagg was its stringer in the 40s. In the World War II days, it was common for reporters to double as spies and for spies to pass of as journalists.)

A testimony of Niranjan Singh Talib, the then Punjab Congress chief, also corroborates the theory. Talib told the Khosla Commission that in 1947 he met Wagg at then Defence Minister Baldev Singh's house, where Wagg showed him some pictures of Netaji taken after his death in the crash.

Russia: Dilip Mukherjee, a relative of Bhagwanji's doctor, Dr P Banerjee, fills in with the Soviet Russia details, which came out in a one long meeting he had with Bhagwanji in 1978. "He (Bhagwanji) was sitting on a bed in front of us. I could see his face, but the light was dim. He had a white beard. I don't know where I got this courage. I egged him on the issue of communism. I said it was better and he countered it by saying he had seen Russia and seen how selected people there enjoy themselves in big hotels whereas ordinary people suffer."

When Mukherjee persisted, Bhagwanji said: "You think you are too smart? Is sharir ne Siberia main yatnai sahi hain. You don't teach me communism!" (This body has suffered torture in Siberian camps.)

Another Bhagwanji follower, a revolutionary who does not want to be named, recollects that Bhagwanji often talked about the prisoners' camp in Siberia. "He knew everything about them."

This is supported by notes on the margins of a 1964 letter written by Netaji follower and revolutionary Sunil Das. The translation of it from Roman Bangla is: "SCB (Subhas Chandra Bose) is alive … He is a stubborn fellow, he is alive… - this is for sure. Nothing deters him. He is not at all demoralised despite being beaten so badly by USSR's high-ranking officers."

Some of the letters found among Bhagwanji's belongings also show that Bhagwanji's followers would brief him about the inner politics in Indian governmental circles. One such letter mentioned then Defence Minister Krishna Menon and charged him with pushing Moscow's interests everywhere.

Incidentally, noted Indian research scholar, Dr Purabi Roy, had concluded on the basis of her work on the KGB files that Netaji was in Russia in 1946 - a year after the crash. (This part is well documented by HindustanTimes.com in the earlier phase of the probe.) Another supporting account comes through in Indian National Army great Col Lakshmi Sehgal's cross-examination before the Mukherjee Commission. After initially supporting the crash theory, Sehgal had conceded to the questioner a Netaji researcher V P Saini that she was privy to information that American intelligence sleuths followed a Bose look-alike up to Russian borders after the supposed crash.

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