The West Bengal government is releasing 64 files on Netaji, which were classified, on Friday.
As the countdown begins to the release of 64 files on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose by the West Bengal government on Friday, there is also a growing demand to revisit a report on his death, rejected by the Congress-led government in a 2006.
Set up by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government in 1999, the report by the Justice Mukherjee Commission had concluded that the Indian freedom movement leader did not die in an air crash at Taihoku on 18 August 1945 and the ashes kept at Renkoji Temple in Japan are not Netaji's.
"I feel it is most unfair. The government of India appoints a commission of inquiry, they spend a lot of public money, and then they reject the report without any reason. I think it needs to be reviewed and revisited," said Chandra Bose, grandnephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
The government had earlier accepted the findings of the Shahnawaz Khan Committee set up in 1956 and the GD Khosla Commission report submitted in 1974. Both concluded that Netaji had, indeed, died in the air crash of 1945.
Purabi Roy is a researcher and author of a book called The Search for Netaji: New Findings. Her book contends the possibility that Netaji fled to Russia after the purported crash. She points out that while the earlier panels relied largely on the testimony of those who were associated with Netaji and the purported air crash, the Justice Mukherjee Commission had to look for circumstantial evidence.
"Both the reports by the Shahnawaz committee and the GD Khosla Commission were rejected by the public but accepted by the government. And when the public accepted the Justice Mukherjee Commission, the government rejected it. I'm very sorry to say that they couldn't go through it and never gave a chance to discuss the proper estimation of the finding," she said.
"I am aware there are legal issues about revisiting Justice Mukherjee's report but an attempt should be made," added Ms Roy.
Ms Roy was a deponent at the Mukherjee Commission and had a look at some of the 64 Bengal files on Netaji that will be put on public display at the Kolkata Police Museum on Friday.