India Tv Special – Gumnami Baba
There had been at least four known occasions when Bhagwanji reportedly claimed he was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose himself. Handwriting analysis expert and former Additional Director of the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, Dr B. Lal deposed before the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry that probed into the disappearance of Netaji, that the handwritings of Bhagwanji and Bose did match. However, the commission did not accept the claim that Bhagwanji was Bose, for want of any clinching evidence. At the same time, the commission also rejected the official view of the Indian government that Bose died in 1945. In light of the commission’s rulings, the obscurity left behind by Bhagwanji makes enough reason for a debate even today.
Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee who probed into the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose stated in his report that the sanyasi of Faizabad (Bhagwanji) was not Bose as there was no clinching evidence to prove it. However, he inadvertently stated in a documentary shoot that he believed Bhagwanji was none other than Bose. This revelation supports the view that Bose had not died in the plane crash in 1945, and was in fact in India after that.