INA TREASURES

Who grabbed it?

Contents
1940: Netaji Jailed in Kolkata for Hallwell Movement .................................................................................................. 2
The Great Escape ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
1941-42: Berlin Years .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Forma on of Indian Independence League and Indian Na onal Army ......................................................................... 4
1943: Subhas Bose Joining IIL and Leading INA ............................................................................................................ 4
1944: Azad Hind Bank Opened in Rangoon .................................................................................................................. 5
Some Donors .............................................................................................................................................................. 6
1945 - The Treasures and Taihoku Plane Crash ............................................................................................................ 7
Salvaging the treasures ............................................................................................................................................... 8
The quan ty of treasures ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Leakage points ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
Complaints of misappropria on of ‘Netaji collec ons’............................................................................................... 10
The suspect as per Subramanian Swamy ................................................................................................................... 12
Funds of INA and IIL .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Can the government claim INA and IIL assets as its own? .......................................................................................... 14
1940: Netaji Jailed in Kolkata for Hallwell Movement
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s larger-than-life persona has been an inspiration for many
Indians, but the final days of the iconic Indian freedom fighter’s life have been a
seemingly perpetual enigma. Netaji was not only a revolutionary, he also knew how to
beat the British in his own game. He taught the people of India and especially the youth
to fight for the freedom of the country. And gave the slogan "Tum mujhe khoon do,
main tumhe azadi dunga" (You give me blood, I will give you freedom). He had brought
9 countries of the world including Germany, Japan, Philippines, Korea, China and Italy in
favour of India's independence.
On 16th Feb, 1938, Subhas took charge as President of Congress. But due to total
differences with Gandhi – Nehru wing of congress and their opposition in everything
proposed by him during Tripuri Congress meeting, he resigned from the post of Congress
President on 28th April 1939. After his resignation, he formed the All-India Forward Bloc
on 3rd May 1939, a party within Congress, in an attempt to bring together the leftist
faction and to fight Gandhism.
On 2nd July 1940, Netaji was arrested under Section 129 of the Indian Defence Act due
to the Hollwell Movement and he was to stay in the Presidency Jail for six months.
Russia and Britain were rivals in the Great Game for control of central Asia from the
latter half of the 19th century. During July 1940, the Germans launched their attack on
coastal targets and British ships operating in the English Channel. Netaji wanted Russia
and Germany's help for independence from the British. But it was not possible to do this
while in the jail of Calcutta. So, Netaji started a fast unto death in jail. His health started
deteriorating. And under compulsion, on December 5, 1940, the British government had
to release him on the sole condition that he would be arrested again when he recovered
well. British placed Netaji under house arrest at his residence on Elgin Road, Kolkata.

The Great Escape

While, under house arrest, Netaji made a plan for “The Great Escape” from Kolkata to
Berlin. Despite the strict guard of the British government, on January 17, 1941 Netaji, in
disguise of a Muslim man, escaped by deceiving the British police. After leaving his Elgin
Road residence, Netaji reached Gomoh, near Dhanbad, with his nephew Shishir Bose in
his ‘Baby Austin’ car (BLA 7169) at 8 p.m. It is said that after reaching Gomoh, he was
hiding in the forests of Gomoh Hatiatad where he had a secret meeting with freedom
fighter Alijan and advocate Chiranjeev babu.

Later in the evening, Netaji went to meet lawyer Sheikh Abdullah in Loco Market,
Gomoh. He shared his plan with Sheikh Abdullah to visit Peshawar. At the behest of
Sheikh Abdullah, Ameen tailor of Gomoh hastily prepared Pathani clothes for Netaji. On
the same day, January 18, 1941 at 1 am, Netaji, dressed as a Kabuliwallah, boarded
Howrah-Peshawar Express (63 UP) from platform number three of Gomoh railway
station…to reach Peshawar.

On reaching Peshawar, he disguised as a Muslim Insurance Agent and changed his name
to Ziauddin. To mingle with the citizens of Afghanistan, Netaji started wearing Pashtun-
like clothes. But the problem was that he did not know the Pashto language. To avoid
being caught, he acted dumb and deaf.

This incident of Subhash Chandra Bose leaving the country is etched in the pages of
history as “The Great Escape”.
On 23 January 2009, to commemorate Netaji’s 112th Birth Anniversary, Gomoh railway
station was renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Gomoh railway station. And on 23 January
2021, Kalka Mail was renamed to Netaji Express.

Netaji wanted to go from Peshawar to Kabul and then via Kabul to Moscow. On 21st Jan
1941, attired as a Pathan, Netaji started his journey to Kabul.

The hearing of the case involving Netaji was scheduled on January 27, 1941. The British
government came to know on January 26 that Netaji was not present in Calcutta.

After reaching Kabul Netaji went to the Embassy of Italy in Kabul. The Italian Count
Orlando Mazzotta, escorted him from Afghanistan to Moscow by NKVD (Narodny
Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del or the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs). Once in
Russia the NKVD transported Bose to Moscow where he hoped that Russia's historical
enmity with the Britishers would result in support for his plan for the independence of
India. However, Bose found the Soviets' response disappointing and was rapidly passed
over to the German Ambassador in Moscow, Count von der Schulenburg. He had Bose
flown to Berlin in a special courier aircraft at the beginning of April 1941.

1941-42: Berlin Years

In Nazi Germany, where the leadership offered unexpected, if equivocal, sympathy for
India's independence. He received favourable hearing from Joachim von Ribbentrop, a
politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany, at
the Wilhelmstrasse. Throughout 1941 the Germans intermittently but inconclusively
considered a land invasion of India. Although it was peripheral to their main goals in
Eastern Europe, but Subhas Chandra Bose remained optimistic about its likelihood.
During World War II, the older Indo-German networks were once again activated. By the
spring of 1942, however, the German army had become mired in Russia; German land
invasion of India became untenable.
During the same period, Japan had won quick victories in Asia and Bose became keen to
move to southeast Asia. Adolf Hitler, during his only meeting with Bose in late May
1942, suggested the same and offered to arrange a submarine.

After about two years stay in Berlin Netaji left for Sumatra. Netaji boarded a German
submarine on 8th February 1943. Off Madagascar, he was transferred to a Japanese
submarine from which he disembarked in Japanese-held Sumatra in May 1943. After a
few days rest Bose boarded a small Japanese plane to go to Tokyo by mid-May.

Formation of Indian Independence League and Indian National Army

Rash Behari Bose was an Indian revolutionary noted for planning of the Delhi-Lahore
conspiracy of 1912 to assassinate the then Viceroy Lord Hardinge, and his involvement
in the Ghadr Conspiracy of 1915. Sought by the British Raj, Rash Behari fled to Japan
where he found sanctuary among Japanese patriotic societies. Rash Behari subsequently
learned the Japanese Language, married a Japanese woman, and became a naturalised
Japanese citizen. In March 1942, a conference of India was held in Tokyo and the Indian
Independence League was formed. At Bangkok Conference, Rash Behari Bose was elected
as President of the Indian Independence League (IIL) which established its branches
across Asia.

The Indian National Army (INA) was first formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh.
Fujihara, a Japanese Army officer, handed over about 40,000 Indian prisoners of war
(PoWs) of the British Indian Army captured by Japan in the Malayan campaign and at
Singapore, to Mohan Singh. The INA, was handed over to Rash Behari Bose after
Mohan Singh was disbanded due to differences between his leadership and the Japanese
military over its role in Japan's war in Asia. After taking over the INA, Rash Behari called
for a conference of Indian Independence League. On 15 June 1942 the Bangkok
conference was held with Rashbehari Bose as the chairman. This conference passed a
resolution that defined the role of the League in the independence movement, its relations
with the Indian National Army and the conditions for Japanese support. But, because of
desertions and betrayals of the officers, and lack of trust between Japanese and Indians,
INA remained non-functional. Rash Behari Bose, despite his failing health and age, tried
his best to reconcile the differences.

1943: Subhas Bose Joining IIL and Leading INA

Subhas Chandra Bose had been in contact with Rashbehari Bose since 1933, when he was
exiled in Europe. Although R. B. Bose’s effort continued to conduct the solid unified
troops in Asia, his health ruined day by day. The then Japan’s army decided to replace the
leadership of INA and Subhas Chandra Bose who was in Germany was picked up for the
job.
R. B. Bose welcomed the arrival of Subhas Chandra Bose in Japan. On July 2, 1943
Subhas Chandra Bose, accompanied by Abid Hasan, landed in Singapore. On July 4,
1943, Rash Behari Bose, handed over his leadership baton to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
in front of the members of Indian Independence League in the Cathay Theatre. Netaji
reorganized the Indian Independence League and gave the department of General Affairs
to Lt. Col. A.C Chatterjee, Publicity and Propaganda to S.A Iyer, Education to John
Thivy, Social Welfare, Housing and Transport to D.M Khan, Women's dept. to Lakshmi
Swaminathan, Supplies to Hardayal Singh, Recruitment to B.M Pattanaik, Training to Lt.
Col. Ehsan Qadir, Reconstruction to A.N Sarkar, N. Raghavan (influential member of
the Indian Independence League) as Finance Minister. All departments had their
responsibilities defined and department of General Affairs provided the liaison and
coordination across the departments. The recruitment department was responsible for the
recruitment of volunteers for the Indian National Army.

1944: Azad Hind Bank Opened in Rangoon

“For war you need three things: money, money, and money”.
On 21 October 1943 Subhash Chandra Bose proclaimed the formation of the Arzi
Hukumat-e-Azad Hind, or the Provisional Government of Free India (also known as
Azad Hind or Free India) supported by Imperial Japan. The INA was declared to be the
army of Azad Hind. And early after it, on 23 October 1943, Bose declared war against
British Raj and its allies

Azad Hind Bank was established on 5 April 1944, at Rangoon (now Yangon) in Burma
(now Myanmar), the then headquarters of the Provisional Azad Hind Indian government
supported by Imperial Japan. He also received funding from Germany. He took every
penny from the foreign powers who were opposing Britishers as a borrowing, to be repaid
by the Free India Government.

Bose established the Azad Hind bank to manage the operations of the Azad Hind Fauj.
But Netaji had no intention to depend only the foreign powers for the Indian National
Army (INA) finances in its war against the British. He started collecting donations made
by the Indian community from across the world for the liberation of India from the
British Raj and pay back money received from the Germans. The bank opened its
branches throughout Japan occupied countries.

Regular collection drives were made and large funds were collected and kept with the
Netaji Fund Committee under the minister of revenue of the Provisional Government of
Azad Hind. Netaji’s call for financial help from the people of India and expatriates in
South-East Asian countries resulted in donations pouring in. The money collected by the
Azad Hind government was kept in the Bank.
Initially the bank had an authorized capital of ₹ 5 million and paid-up capital of ₹ 2.5
million. The currency notes were issued in the form of Promissory note, and these notes
were usually printed on one side.

Some Donors
The PGAH and INA had received tremendous support from Indians in Singapore,
Malaysia and Burma. The region of South East Asia had a vast Indian population.
Wealthy Indian families contributed generously to the war fund. Women readily gave up
their jewellery. Netaji had raised the largest war chest by any Indian leader in the 20th
century.

While Gujarati businessmen in India donated generously for Mahatma Gandhi’s non-
violent freedom struggle, there were some who helped Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s
Indian National Army.

A businessman from Dhoraji town of Saurashtra, Memon Abdul Habeeb Yusuf Marfani,
donated almost his entire fortune to the Indian National Army. On July 9, 1944, when
Netaji founded INA in Rangoon, Marfani came forward to contribute financially to the
Azad Hind Bank. In fact, Marfani, known as Habib Sheth among those who knew him,
was very close to Netaji. He donated Rs 1 crore, a princely sum in those days, in cash and
jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh in 1944, all of which values around Rs 500 crore today. The
Memon family was settled in Rangoon. He also made other Gujaratis in Burma donate to
INA.

Historian Yunus Chitalwala says Marfani was among the first donors and Netaji
expressed his gratitude by awarding him a Sevak-e-Hind medal. He was the first recipient
of this award. Great-grand-nephew of Netaji and Harvard professor of history Sugata
Bose records: “One such millionaire-turned-fakir was Abdul Habeeb Saheb who gave
away his entire fortune amounting to one crore and three lakhs of rupees to the Azad
Hind movement. At a public meeting in Rangoon in 1944 Habib Saheb walked up to the
platform and emptied a basketful of diamonds and jewellery into a silver tray, placed a
bundle of title deeds in one corner, and then lifted the tray and handed it over to Netaji
with a smile. When His Excellency Netaji pinned the medal, Sewak-e-Hind, he said, ‘I
feel so proud and happy’.”

Soon, the coffer swelled with contributions from Indian expats in Rangoon and
Singapore. According to a top-secret letter dated October 20, 1951, signed by KK
Chettur, a member of the Indian liaison mission in Tokyo, and addressed to S Dutt,
secretary, Common-wealth Relations: “…as of January 26, 1945, donations in cash, gold
(11kg 300 gm) and other valuables received by the Azad Hind government in exile were
equal to his (Netaji’s) weight”. Some reports have talked about a “war chest” of 100 kg
of gold and jewellery.
1945 - The Treasures and Taihoku Plane Crash
After Japan’s surrender, World War II ended, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, from
Singapore, cabled Debnath Das, the general secretary of the Indian Independence League
(IIL) at Bangkok, to take care of the INA treasures and keep it secretly. The treasures
were mostly jewellery, gold bars and gold trinkets, received as donations. Das moved the
treasures under the guard of the INA military police to Netaji’s residence just outside the
city.

Netaji, after arriving Bangkok, before noon on August 16, 1945, went straight to the IIL
headquarters and made arrangements for disbursement of two to three months advance
salary for the INA and IIL personnel, donations to Thai-Bharat Cultural lodge and the
Indian Association.

Japan’s surrender was not INA’s surrender. In the evening, he called a meeting of all INA
and IIL officers at his residence. There, he announced his decision to leave Bangkok for
an “adventure into the unknown” with S.A. Ayer, Debnath Das, Colonel Habibur
Rahman, Captain Gulzara Singh, Colonel Pritam Singh and Major Abid Hasan, to
continue the struggle for freedom and asked them to report at his residence with their
belongings early in the morning.

Later that night, he sat with his personal valet Kundan Singh and Abid Hasan with the
treasures. Netaji repackaged the treasures in four iron boxes. The boxes, according to
Kundan Singh, weighed 2 to 2½ maunds (80-100 kg).

Early on August 17, Netaji and his six associates flew out of Bangkok with the boxes and
reached Saigon at around 9 am. At Saigon, they were in trouble as there was no plane for
their further journey. The plane that Netaji often used, named ‘Azad Hind’, had been
grounded in April 1945 after it was badly damaged.

However, there was one plane, a bomber, en-route to Tokyo with some passengers which
would touch down at Saigon. Netaji was offered a seat there but he refused as he wanted
to travel with his full team. Negotiations with the Japanese continued and as a result,
Netaji’s companion Habibur Rahman got a seat. Netaji discarded some of his luggage as
he wanted to take more companions. He ordered the remaining five companions to report
at the airport with their kit to accompany, in case some more seats become available.

Netaji’s insistence to get more seats continued at the airport. He waited for his car
carrying his baggage, much to the annoyance of the Japanese who were in a hurry to leave.
When the car arrived, seeing the bags to be exceptionally heavy, Lieutenant Colonel
Nonogaki, himself a pilot and co-passenger in the flight, told Netaji, “Either the
additional (third) person could accompany you or the boxes.” Netaji went for the boxes.
Without any delay, Debnath Das and Pritam Singh catapulted the bags into an almost
moving plane. Nonogaki had lifted the boxes and found them to be around 20 kg each.

The next day, August 18, at Taihoku, Formosa (Taiwan), the most unfortunate incident
in the INA’s three-year history happened. The bomber crashed at the airfield while taking
off at around 2:30 pm, killing Netaji (??) and five other Japanese.

Salvaging the treasures

The INA treasures lay scattered on the ground where the plane fell. Major K. Sakai,
officer commanding (OC) of the aerodrome defence and Captain Nakamura, OC of the
aerodrome, cordoned off the area and salvaged whatever treasures they could. They were
mostly burnt jewellery.

According to Sakai the collected materials “were put into an 18-litre petroleum can,
which weighed around 16 kg”. It was sealed and brought to the army headquarters. The
contents were put in a wooden box, size 15”x15”x20”, by Lieutenant Colonel Shibuya,
nailed down and later sent under the custody of Lieutenant Colonel Sakai, along with
Bose’s remains, to Tokyo on September 5, 1945. Lieutenant Colonel Takakura handed
over the jewellery boxes to Ramamurti, IIL president, on September 8, 1945.

In the last week of September 1945, Habibur and Ramamurti opened the box, cleaned
and weighed the jewellery. The weight was 11 kg. 300 gm of gold brought in by Ayer
separately from Saigon. The weight was noted down and signed.

The boxes remained with Ramamurti in Tokyo for six years till September 24, 1951
when it was handed over to the Indian Liaison Mission, after which it was delivered to
New Delhi.

What came to India on November 10, 1952 was the same 11 kg of charred jewellery and
300 gm of gold which is now lying in the National Museum’s vault. Nehru remarked, “I
saw this ‘treasure’. It made a poor show.” The vault was later opened twice for inspection,
the first time in 1956 by the Shahnawaz Khan Enquiry Committee for Kundan Singh to
identify the items, and then on October 9, 1978 for inspection by some MPs during
Moraraji Desai’s tenure as prime minister. The treasures were weighed and they more or
less tallied with the weight Habibur recorded in end-September 1945.

The quantity of treasures

There is no documented record of how much treasure Netaji carried, how much was
recovered from the airfield and how much was handed over to Ramamurti at Tokyo.
Records are generally destroyed so that they do not fall into enemy hands. But some
assessment can be made.
Much to his dislike, Netaji was weighed (65-80 kg) against gold on his birthday in 1945.
Dinanath, chairman of the Azad Hind Bank in Rangoon, said 140 lb (64 kg) of gold was
taken away when the INA retreated on April 24, 1945. Kundan Singh said the four boxes
Netaji took with him from Bangkok weighed 75-90 kg (i.e. 59 to 74 kg ornaments after
deducting the weight of the four boxes, 4 kg each). Taking a cue from these three sources
which do not vary much and applying the law of averages, we get a rough estimate that
Netaji started his journey with nearly 70 kg of treasures.

To reduce baggage load for an overloaded plane, he kept behind some of his luggage in
Saigon and took two boxes into the fateful plane. Nonogaki, who lifted the boxes inside
the plane, said they weighed around 20 kg each. Minus the weight of two boxes (4
kg/box), the treasures that entered the plane with Netaji weighed 32 kg. Thus, the
remaining 38 kg was left behind at Saigon.

The petroleum can weighed 16 kg. Minus the weight of the can (2 kg), the weight of the
treasures in it works out to approximately 14 kg, i.e. 3 kg more than the quantity Habibur
weighed in end-September 1945 and what came to India in 1952.

Leakage points
The apparent leakage points, therefore, are:
 Saigon, August 17, 1945 onwards: 38 kg left behind (Ayer deposited just 300 gm
of gold in Tokyo). None of the five associates of Netaji who remained back in
Saigon till August 20 make any mention of the existence of any valuables;
 Airfield at Taihoku, August 18: 18 kg lost. Netaji was carrying 32 kg in the plane
but the salvaged quantity was 14 kg. Some quantity got melted and merged with
the fuselage;
 At Ramamurti’s residence: 3 kg reduction, between September 8, 1945 and before
Habibur weighed the materials as 11 kg.
 The box of INA salvaged treasures.
A staggering 59 kg of treasure was missing. The 3 kg reduction could have been ignored
as all values are few-kilogram approximation but for the public uproar in Japan against
Ramamurti, suspicion remains.

Complaints of misappropriation of ‘Netaji collections’

Many Indians and Japanese issued signed statements on the disappearance of the “Netaji
collections”. The Indian Liaison Mission at Tokyo, K.K. Chettur, in December 1947
reported to the external affairs ministry about the misappropriation of “Netaji’s
collection” by Ramamurti.

The Indian Liaison Mission at Tokyo, K.K. Chettur, in December 1947 reported to the
external affairs ministry about the misappropriation of “Netaji’s collection” by
Ramamurti.
But, to this, the Nehru government’s response was “the Government of India can hardly
claim the assets of the IIL as its own and this is, therefore, a matter in which we cannot
proceed officially”. (That the matter of ownership has not been resolved yet even after 75
years of independence is demonstrated at the end of this article.)
 Then Janata Dal leader Subramanian Swamy on ‘Netaji Treasures’, Hindustan Times,
February 9, 1978.
The matter resurfaced in 1951 when Chettur reported about the comparative affluence of
Ramamurti since 1946, when all other Indian nationals were suffering great hardships in
Tokyo; Captain Thairatatte’s farming venture in Sandal and Colonel Figgess, military
attache of the British Mission in Tokyo, blossoming out into an Oriental curio expert and
collector of object d’art. Chettur also mentioned Ayer’s arrival from Saigon in 1945 with
a reported “two big suitcases containing personal effects of Bose” but ultimately adding
just 300 gm of gold to the ‘treasures’.

What happened to the 59 kg of INA treasures remains unknown.

The suspect as per Subramanian Swamy

In 1978, Subramanian Swamy of then Janata Dal, told the press, claiming “full
responsibility and supporting evidence”, that on arrival of INA treasures from Japan in
November 1952, Prime Minister Nehru melted all of them in Allahabad and credited
them to his personal account.

When it came to providing “supporting evidence”, Swamy did nothing in this regard in
the past 43 years nor did he lodge any complaint.

Funds of INA and IIL

The West Bengal government in 1953 passed a resolution asking the Union government
to take steps to investigate the fate of the funds left by Netaji and the INA. In response,
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent a detailed action taken report to the chief minister
Dr B.C. Roy on October 18, 1953, the summary of which is as follows:

The money received in Malay (Strait $44,212) was put in a Bank in the name of a Trust
‘Indian Relief Committee’ (IRC) formed by Nehru in 1946. The accrued money was
being utilised as scholarships for students of Indian origin in Malay.

Valuables (Strait $147,163) belonging to the INA seized by the Allies were with the
Custodian of Enemy Property at Singapore. Pakistan claimed a portion of the asset and it
was agreed that the same will be divided at a ratio of 2:1. When the money gets
recovered, it will be added to the IRC Fund.

The IIL Fund confiscated by the British in Thailand (Ticals 258,822) was received by
the Indian Embassy there in 1950 and deposited in a Bank. The amount was being
utilised for educational purposes.
The unspent amount of quarantine charges (Strait $244,270 and Rs 2,512) collected by
shipping companies from passengers from Bombay and Calcutta departing for Malaya,
were also added to the IRC Fund.

An Indian merchant in Singapore, Hardial Singh, possessed 5.634 kg of gold belonging

to the INA. He renounced all claims to the gold and on April 6, 1946 and deposited the
gold in Nehru’s name to a Bank which became part of ‘enemy property’. The custodian of
enemy property later decided to return the gold. Pakistan’s claim of one-third of all INA
assets was met by Nehru in November 1953, agreeing to sell the gold and meet the
bilateral arrangement.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s detailed action taken report to West Bengal chief
minister Dr. B.C. Roy on October 18, 1953
Can the government claim INA and IIL assets as its own?
The question of whether the moveable properties of the Provisional Government of Azad
Hind abroad, the INA, IIL and of Netaji Subhas Bose, could be treated as treasures in
favour of the Union of India and taken over by the Indian Treasury was not only
lingering in 1947, delaying Nehru’s decision to take possession of the same, but it is still
in suspension.

In 2016, a PIL (WP 672 of 2016) was filed in the Calcutta high court seeking an order
directing the Union government to take over the assets of the INA. The petition was
disposed of on January 10, 2020. The court “could foresee that there is a likelihood of
claims or disputes that may be raised on behalf of the estate of Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose”. Thus, the court gave one year to the government to conclude finally what it
proposes to do with the moveable assets of the INA. Nothing has been heard since then.

PIL (WP 672 of 2016) in Calcutta high court seeking an order directing the Union
government to take over the assets of the INA.
No inquiry after 76 years can recover the lost treasures nor can the feasibility of
identifying the perpetrators be guaranteed. But this all goes to show that the hard-earned
INA treasures that Netaji collected, in cash and in kind, for the war of independence
could not have gone astray had Netaji remained in any part of the world after 1945.