BoseFiles, claimed on Sunday that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s gold-plated tooth is likely to be found in his last remains held at Renkoji Temple in Tokyo. BoseFiles is is a UK website set up to catalogue Netaji’s last days.
Bose’s trusted aide-de-camp, Colonel Habibur Rehman had told his son that he had dropped the tooth in the urn that contains Netaji’s ashes. Rehman said he had the chance when he went to collect the remains after Netaji’s cremation. He was also involved in the same crash that is believed to have killed Bose in Taiwan on 18 August 1945.
The tooth had apparently been extracted before the body entered the furnace and given to him by one of the officials associated with the last rites, Bosefiles claimed.
Colonel Rehman passed away in 1978, leaving the information, among other details, with son Naeemur who in turned shared the information with Ashis Ray, creator of the website in the 1990s.
File G-16(3)/95-NGO in the Netaji Papers, released by the Indian government, reveal that Ray wrote to five leaders to inform them about his findings. The letter was written former Prime Ministers Narashimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former CM of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, President of Janata Dal SR Bommai and General Secretary of the Forward Bloc Chitta Basu on 11 August 1995.
The veracity of Naeemur Rehman’s claim can easily be determined by a scan of the urn. The existence of an un- cremated tooth will virtually guarantee success of a DNA test.Excerpt from Ashis Ray’s letter
Rehman’s son had divulged another telling piece of information. He said his father was devastated to know that people in India disbelieved his story about Bose perishing in the tragedy and the remains at Renkoji Temple being Netaji’s – which Colonel Rehman had carried from Taipei to Tokyo.
Naeemur further disclosed that Bose’s followers and relatives received Rehman’s testimony to Shah Nawaz Khan Netaji Inquiry Committee with a lot of suspicion in 1956.
“Why would I lie?” Colonel Rehman is said to have told his son.
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