Netaji’s grandnephew seeks DNA test of ashes kept in Japan

Kolkata: Seven decades have passed since Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose vanished in 1945, with many historians speculating that he perished in a plane accident, but the demand to return his supposed remains from a shrine in Japan for DNA testing has yet to be satisfied.

The independence fighter’s grandnephew, Surya Kumar Bose, renewed his call for DNA testing of the ashes that have been interred at Renkoji temple, in order to end the controversy surrounding his ‘disappearance’ on Tuesday. Since Netaji’s disappearance, other hypotheses have circulated, with some experts claiming that he did not perish in the accident and instead lived in disguise until his death.

Surya Kumar Bose, who lives in Germany, said, ‘Almost two decades ago in the course of the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (JMCI), a precious opportunity to conduct a DNA test and to bring the remains of Netaji home to his beloved motherland, was sadly lost. The JMCI Report indicates that Renkoji authorities were unwilling to allow DNA testing of the alleged remains.

In his statement, he noted that Reverend Nichiko Mochizuki, the top priest of Renkoji Temple, had written to the Indian embassy in Tokyo in 2005, requesting that the remains be returned. Mr. Bose, an IT specialist, made his argument by quoting passages from a letter sent by Nichiko Mochizuki, whose father is said to have received the alleged remains of Netaji in September 1945.

Nichiko Mochizuki told the embassy in the excerpt that her father’s soul and spirit would finally rest in peace if the DNA test was approved and his remains returned to India. ‘In this way, I agree to offer my co-operation for the testing.’

Madhuri Bose, Netaji’s grandniece, commissioned the translation of the head priest’s original letter. Mr. Bose stated that the officials at Renkoji Temple were completely supportive of a DNA test on the remains.

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‘It is time to seize the opportunity missed by Justice Mukherjee to conduct a DNA testing procedure on the reported remains of Netaji. There is every reason to believe that this entire process would be fully acceptable to and supported by the Renkoji Temple authorities, as well as by the governments of both Japan and India,’ Surya Kumar Bose stated. He met PM Modi in Berlin in 2015 to demand declassification of all secret files related to the freedom warrior.

‘Subhas Bose did not belong just to his family. He had himself said that the whole country is his family,’ the grandnephew had said back then. Anita Bose Pfaff, Netaji’s daughter, has previously requested that the governments of India and Japan to make arrangements to return her father’s alleged remains to India.