Netaji's grandnephew seeks DNA test of ashes kept at Japan's Temple

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• Aug 19, 2021 | moderator

Tokyo: Surya Kumar Bose, Grandnephew of Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose, made a fresh appeal to authorities to conduct a DNA test of the ashes of Bose that have been interred in Renkoji temple, Japan.

After seven decades of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's speculated 'missing' case in the year 1945, many historians suggest that he might have died in a plane crash but the recurring demand to bring back Bose’s remains from Japan for DNA examination has not been met as of now.

Several theories have persisted since Netaji went missing, with some experts have claimed that he did not die in the crash and lived in disguise till death. 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. According to the JMCI Report, the Renkoji authorities were not willing to allow a DNA test of the alleged remains.”

The chief priest of Renkoji Temple, Reverend Nichiko Mochizuki, had written to the Indian embassy in Tokyo in 2005 insisting that the remains be returned. Surya said that the letter was written by Mochizuki, whose father is known to have received the purported remains of Netaji in September 1945, to make his point. Mochizuki told that "I felt that if I accepted the proposal for DNA testing and the remains are eventually returned to India, my father’s soul and spirit could finally be at rest. In this way, I agree to offer my co-operation for the testing."

In 2015 Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bose in Berlin to raise the demand to open up all the secret files related to the freedom fighter. "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. Earlier, Netaji’s daughter Anita Bose Pfaff had also requested the governments of India and Japan to bring her father’s purported remains back home.