As the circumstances surrounding the death of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose remains shrouded in mystery, official documents declassified by the government say the revolutionary leader was a victim of an aircrash on August 18, 1945.

Bose, whose birth centenary falls on Wednesday, was sitting next to the petrol tank of a K-21 heavy bomber aircraft when it lost control and crashed, according to documents made public by the Union Home Ministry following a Right to Information (RTI) application.

Contents of 91 documents have been put in public domain while the Home Ministry has declined to do so in respect of over 100 documents.

The report of Counter Intelligence Corps, who questioned Bose’s close aide Habib ur Rahman, said that the plane carrying Netaji after its take-off from Taihoku (Taipei) in Formosa (Taiwan), could not gain much altitude, when he had heard a terrific explosion leaving the plane “vibrating violently.”

Rahman told the investigators that the plane in which he was accompanying Bose, lost its control and burst into flames after it took off from Taihoku in the afternoon of August 18, 1945.

“...the seat Bose occupied in the aircraft was beside a petrol tank at the time of the crash. The tank exploded, spreading the burning fuel on Bose’s clothing,” the Counter Intelligence Corps said in a report dated September 29, 1945.

The declassified report was revealed to a Delhi based organisation ‘Mission Netaji’ which had invoked its Right to Information to get from the Home Ministry documents relating to Netaji’s mysterious death.