The old mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's disappearance has surfaced again with the Justice Mukherjee Commission claiming that Netaji did not die in a plane crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945 as previously believed. The Centre has rejected the claim.

The commission also claimed that the ashes in Renkoji Temple in Japan were not that of Netaji. Although the commission has admitted that Netaji was no more they had no answers on how and why Netaji died.

The Commission said in the absence of any clinching evidence to prove that "Bhagwanji-Gumnami Baba was Netaji, the question whether he died in Faizabad (in Uttar Pradesh) on September 16, 1985 as testified by some of the witnesses, need not be answered".

The Justice Mukherjee Commission was tabled before the Parliament on Wednesday. The government also put forth a statement citing reasons for delay in placing the report before the Parliament. The report that was submitted on November 8th had to be placed before the house within six months of submission. Howeve, that was not possible because of the time taken in translation, printing, consideration of the report by the government, its approval by the Union Cabinet and the adjournment of Parliament on March 22.

On May 14, 1999, Mr M K Mukherjee, retired judge of the Supreme Court, was appointed as a one-man Commission of Inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act of 1952 to analyse the circumstances related to the disappearance of Netaji in 1945.

The brief was simple: The commission had to check if Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was actually killed in a plane crash or had he died in any other manner. In case he was alive, the Commission was asked to procure details of his whereabouts.

The views of the government were given in an Action Taken Report (ATR) along with the Commission's findings. The ATR said that the government has examined the report submitted by the Commission on November 8, 2005 in detail and have not agreed with the findings that Netaji did not die in the plane crash and the ashes in the Renkoji Temple were not of Netaji.

Previously the Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956 and the Khosla Commission in 1970 had concluded that Netaji had died in the plane crash at Taipei. The government feels that since the Mukherjee Commission has provided no information about how Netaji died, if he had not died in the plane crash, there is no reason to accept the findings.