"Uttam Chand Malhotra (Witness No-16) gave shelter to Bose at Kabul in 1941, when after escaping from his home in Calcutta, he arrived in Kabul after a long and hazardous journey.

Malhotra began by saying that Bose had not died after sustaining injuries in an air-crash, on August 18,1945, but was very much alive and was now living in the Shaulmari Ashram near Sylhet. He went on to assure me that he would conduct me to Shaulmari and place my hand in Netaji's hand.
Malhotra also met Dwijendra Nath Bose, Netaji's nephew, and questioned him about the identity of the Sadhu of Shaulmari. Dwijendra Nath Bose categorically refuted the suggestion that the Sadhu was Netaji.

At a Chinese restaurant Malhotra talked to Dwijendra Nath Bose ,and asked him if he had visited the Shaulmari Ashram and had seen the Sadhu. Dwijendra Nath Bose replied that he had seen him from a distance through a pair of binoculars. Malhotra then asked him if, on seeing this Sadhu, he (Dwijendra Nath Bose) had exclaimed "Ranga Kaka," (this apparently is the nick name by which Netaji was known to Dwijendra Nath Bose). Dwijendra Nath Bose, promptly denied that he had uttered any such exclamation.

Another question which Malhotra put to Bose was whether he had been served with eggs in the Ashram, and when Dwijendra Nath Bose replied in the affirmative, Malhotra exclaimed : "Only those who have your habit and only those who know that you like eggs very much would have asked that eggs be supplied to you. If the Swami was not Netaji, how, could you have been supplied with eggs at the Shaulmari Ashram ?" Despite Malhotra's insistence, Dwijendra Nath Bose continued to deny that the Sadhu of Shaulmari Ashram was Netaji.

Malhotra was thus prejudging the whole issue even before he had paid a visit to the Ashram and set eyes upon the Sadhu, said to be Bose. He was, in fact, forcing his judgement on a close and reluctant relative of Bose, insisting that the Sadhu must be his uncle, because no one except his uncle could have known that Dwijendra Nath Bose liked eggs.

This is a preposterous way of establishing identity. It has not been suggested that Dwijendra Nath Bose's gastronomic predeliction was a secret known only to him- self and his uncle from whom he had been parted for, more than 21 years.

Malhotra maintained that he knew Netaji intimately and had entertained him in his house as a guest for a peried of 46 days in 1941, and he is quite certain that the Sadhu he saw on July 30,1962 was no other than Subhas Chandra Bose. But strangely enough he based his conclusions upon a number of imaginary and unconvincing hypotheses. These he enumerated in the course of his deposition as follows :
1. Despite his denials, Dwijendra Nath Bose had in fact seen the Sadhu of Shaulmari and exclaimed "Ranga Kaka." Of this fact he was assured by Rattan Maheshwari
2. Shri Dwijendra Nath Bose was served with eggs at the Ashram, and this was clear proof of the fact that the founder of the Ashram was Netaji, because only Netaji could know that his nephew, Dwijendra Nath Bose, liked eggs
3. Although Shri Majumdar had categorically stated that Satya Gupta and Roy were lying when they said that the Sadhu was Netaji, Shri Majumdar had not publicly denounced Gupta and Roy
4. At a meeting at which Shri Malhotra threw a challenge regarding the identity of the Shaulmari Baba, saying "if anybody knows that the Sadhu there is not Netaji, I will request him - I give him full time- to come and narrate to the people what is the actual thing at the Shaulmari Ashram," No one in the course of next three hours came forward to say that the Shaulmari Sadhu was not Netaji.
5. In the course of his interview, the Baba told Malhotra : "You know the people of Bengal believe me to be Netaji. I wanted to give you an opportunity of seeing me so that I could tell you who, in reality, I am. This has become a strange kind of mystery." But the Sadhu was never credited with having made an open admission or confession of being Netaji.
6. The Baba, according to Malhotra, had invited a number of prominent persons including Mr. Nehru, Dr. Radhakrishnan, Mr.J.P.Narayan, Dr. B.C.Roy and Mrs. C.R.Das to visit him at the Shaulmari Ashram, but none of them had done so because they did not want to expose themselves to the danger of having to say publicly, what they at heart, believed, viz. Bose was alive and was residing in the Shaulmari Ashram. Baba had, therefore, closed his doors to them now and would not entertain them even if they came.
7. In the course of the interview, the Sadhu referred to Malhotra's article "When Bose was Ziauddin." On this Malhotra said: "Baba, how you have remembered me from the last 1946 to 1962." The Sadhu laughed and did not give a reply.
8. In the course of the same inteview, Malhotra said to the Sadhu that people who visited him in the Ashram remained silent when they came out, and because of their silence, people thought that the Sadhu was Netaji. To this, the Sadhu replied : "They may think so. If people think, what can I do ?"
9. Subhas Chandra Bose in his childhood had a nurse named Sharda and this was the reason why the Sadhu of Shaulmari Ashram had adopted the name Shardanand.

While Malhotra's statement that he quite definitely recognised Bose in the person of Swami Shardanandji would be a piece of relevant and admissible evidence, the inferences he made from the various circumstances, narrated by him, amount, at most, to an opinion formed on extraneous material and on the conduct of other persons. Such opinion has no probative value, and is inadmissible in evidence".

Shri Dutt-Majumdar was questioned about the Shaulmari ashram at great length and he repeatedly stated that the Sadhu was most definitely not Netaji. The sadhu differed from his in several respects, his facial features, his complextion, his height, the degree of his baldness and his speech and intonation. There is no reason why Shri Dutt-Majumdar's statement in this point should not be believed.