Mamata Banerjee commemorates day of Subhash Chandra Bose's disappearance in 1945, says people have ‘right’ to know fate of freedom fighter

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asserted that people have the right to know what happened to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, while remembering the “son of the soil” on the day he reportedly went missing 74 years ago. She said the whereabouts of Netaji after he “disappeared” on 18 August, 1945 are still not known.

“On this day, in 1945, Netaji went on a flight from Taihoku Airport in Taiwan, only to disappear forever. We still do not know what happened to him. People have a right to know about the great son of the soil,” Banerjee tweeted.

Several reports have claimed that Netaji had boarded a plane from Taihoku Airport in Taiwan, which crashed leading to the death of the freedom fighter. There is, however, no confirmation on his death as experts came up with different theories about his disappearance.

The central government, over the years, has constituted panels — the Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956, the Khosla Commisson in 1970, the Mukherjee Commisson in 2005 —  to shed light on the mysteries surrounding the death or the disappearance of Netaji, but none could render any answer.

On 1 September, 2016, the Narendra Modi-led government declassified investigative reports of the Japanese government which concluded that Bose died in a plane crash in Taiwan. Many, however, continue to believe that Netaji survived the plane crash and lived in hiding.