Govt rejects Mukherjee report

The one-man commission probed the alleged disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose during World War II.

A probe into the disappearance of freedom struggle icon Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in 1945 has concluded that he did not die in an air crash as is widely believed, but the Government has rejected the finding.

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The Government did "not agree" with the findings of the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry that "that Netaji did not die in an air crash and that the ashes in (Japan's) Renkoji Temple were not of Netaji", Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in Parliament on Wednesday.

His statement came in a memorandum of action taken on the Mukherjee report.

The Mukherjee probe was set up May 14, 1999 under the Commissions of Inquiry Act to investigate the alleged disappearance of Bose at the height of World War II. The commission submitted its report on Nov 8, 2005 and this should normally have been submitted to Parliament by May 7.

"The incidental delay has been occasioned by time taken in translation, printing, consideration of the report by the government, its approval by the cabinet and the adjournment of parliament on 22nd March, 2006," Patil's statement said.

The Mukherjee report also asked for a thorough probe into the so-called Russian connection in the controversy that contends Bose had survived the Second World War and had, in fact, been detained in a Siberian camp thereafter.

The Mukherjee probe, the third panel constituted to probe Bose's disappearance, was set up following a Calcutta High Court order.