 The
reported death of Subhas Bose in a plane crash in August 1945
in a remote area quite never sank in. From day one, disbelief
overwhelmed shock and, powered by unflinching faith in their
never say die leader, people by and large kept on repudiating
the crash theory.
Years rolled on but the mystery never died down. Questions
were raised over and again at different platforms, including
Parliament.
On December 3, 1955, a decade after the alleged mishap, Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced the setting up of a committee
to look into the mystery of Subhas Bose's disappearance.
Accordingly, a committee headed by INA Major General, Shah
Nawaz Khan, one of the heroes of the Red Fort Trial, was constituted.
High on credibility, the Committee also included Suresh Chandra
Bose, elder brother of Netaji, and S N Mitra, a nominee of
the West Bengal Government.
The terms of reference of the Committee were to enquire into
the circumstances concerning the departure of Netaji from
Bangkok around August 16, 1945, his alleged death, and subsequent
related developments which for all good reasons meant the
missing INA treasure.
The Committee began its work in early April 1956 and finished
work by the end of July same year.
On June 30, 1956, all three members of the Committee signed
a paper that stated that Netaji indeed died in the aeroplane
crash at Taihoku (Japanese for Taipei) in Formosa (now Taiwan),
on August 18, 1945. But by the time the Committee's report
went into print, Suresh Bose had decided to keep him out of
this conclusion.
The Committee, in its final report, concluded that the ashes
kept at Tokyo's Renkoji Temple were of Subhas Bose. It recommended
to the Government to bring the ashes to India with due honour,
and erect a memorial.
Shah Nawaz Committee Report drew heavily from the testimonies
of many of Netaji's co-passengers on the ill-fated plane.
This included sole Indian witness Colonel Habibur Rehman,
Netaji's trusted adjutant. The Committee also interviewed
the doctors who tried to revive Netaji at hospital.
The survivors of the crash extended full cooperation to the
Committee. Colonel Rehman came all the way from Pakistan,
where he had migrated in 1947. Septuagenarian J Nakamura,
an interpreter who was present at Netaji's death-bed, came
on his own from Kyushu, some 1,200 kilometres away from Tokyo
to depose before the Committee.
Though the Committee members were unable to visit Taiwan
due to diplomatic constraints, they did manage to study reports
of secret enquiries concerning Netaji, conducted by civil
and military intelligence soon after the war.
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