U.K. not to declassify documents on Netaji

KOLKATA, AUG. 20. Efforts to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose after the 1945 Taihoku air crash received a severe jolt following the British Government's decision not to disclose any documents from its archives before 2021. The Indian Government had requested its counterpart in Britain to declassify all the documents on Netaji's disappearance from its archives.

The decision of the British Government was communicated to Justice A.N. Mukherjee Commission when it visited London in July connection with the ongoing probe regarding Netaji's mysterious disappearance after the August 18, 1945, air crash, said Dr. Purabi Roy, a Russian scholar and a leading researcher on Netaji's disappearance issue.

Addressing a seminar under the banner of ``Netaji Bhabna Manch'' here yesterday, Dr. Roy, who herself visited a number of Russian and British archives to find the truth, said the commission went to London on July 17 to talk to two British experts - Colonel J Hughtoye and Lord Peter Archer - who were believed to have direct access to most of the classified documents in British archives regarding Netaji. But despite their submission to the commission, the British Government had refused to declassify its archival documents citing security reasons, Dr. Roy said.

Alleging a ``deep-rooted'' conspiracy at the highest level to suppress facts about Netaji, Dr. Roy, a firm believer like many others that Netaji did not die in the 1945 air crash, pointed out that it might open a pandora's box if the truth came out.

Incidentally, the present NDA Government had instituted the one- man commission to probe the disappearance of Netaji after the disclosure of several documents by a three- member team of researchers, led by Dr. Roy. They tried to prove through documents from the Russian archives that the leader was alive at least two years after the crash. Accordingly, the committee, whose term had been extended twice since its appointment last year, organised a number of sittings, talked to a large number of witnesses.

- UNI

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