Netaji probe may get extension

The term of Justice Mukherjee Commission, probing the mysterious death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, may be extended, commission member and Forward Block legislator Subroto Bose said.

The term of the commission will expire on May 14.

"Forward Block leaders met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shivraj Patil and requested for extension of the commission's tenure since the probe is incomplete," Bose, a nephew of Netaji, told reporters in Nagpur on Saturday.

If given an extension, the commission could visit Siberia in Russia, where Netaji was believed to have lived in 1946, a year after his reported death in Taiwan capital on August 18, 1945, he added.

"We have sufficient indications that he lived in Siberia in 1946. The commission could study the records of the then USSR intelligence agency KGB and other documents," Bose said.

Another strong indication that disputes Netaji's mysterious death is the American national archives that have refuted occurrence of any air crash in the Taiwan capital.

The commission during its visit to Taiwan found from the records of Transport and Civil Communication of Taiwan that no plane crash had occurred on August 18, 1945, the legislator said

The news of his plane crash was made known by Japanese government, Bose claimed.