New Delhi: Adding a fresh twist to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose death mystery, former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandson has now made a sensational claim that his grandfather was planning to bring back someone from Soviet Union, who was an Indian icon.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Shastriji's grandson Siddharth Nath Singh said his father Suman Shastri had once told him that his grandfather, the then Indian prime minister, had met someone in the Soviet Union, who was an Indian icon and a lot of people back home were waiting for him.
Singh further said though his father didn't specify any name, one can presume that it could have been Subhas Chandra Bose.
The grandson of Shastri also revealed that the former PM was probably trying to bring him back to India.
“My grandfather (Lal Bahadur Shastri) was very supportive of declassification of files related to Netaji. He was keen that history must be corrected,” Singh added.
Meanwhile, the family members of Netaji are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.
The meeting comes amid unending mystery over Bose's 1945 death, reportedly in a plane crash in Formosa, now Taiwan. Many believe that Bose did not die then.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last month had said that some letters in the declassified files indicate that Bose was alive even after 1945.
The Trinamool Congress chief's comments came after sixty-four secret files relating to Netaji that could help throw light on his mysterious disappearance--an enduring enigma for seven decades --were released by her government.
The Bengal CM also that the documents also support the theory that Bose family was snooped upon.
"There are intercepts. I have seen the documents and it is clear from them that the family of Netaji was spied upon," Banerjee had told the media.
She termed the snooping incident as unfortunate and said after India's independence the great freedom fighter did not get due honour.
On August 22, 1945, Tokyo Radio announced the 'death' of Netaji in an air crash in Formosa (now Taiwan) on August 18, 1945, en route to Japan.
