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MP Anantkumar Hegde, who met the family members in Austria recently, extended the invitation to them for the programme. During an interaction with media persons on Tuesday, he explained how he gathered information about Netaji’s family members.
He said, after Netaji’s death in an air crash in 1949, there was hardly any information regarding his family members. Even the M K Mukherjee Commission, which submitted the historical documents in three volumes, has not mentioned anything about Netaji’s family members. However, he was aware that Netaji's family members were living in Austria.
While reading life story of Netaji out of curiosity, the MP came to know that Netaji's wife Emily was from Austria. He contacted the Austrian embassy but did not succeed in getting information.
An Indologist in Austria, reverentially called Swamiji, helped him to meet 86-year-old K K Shandilya, who was the Indian National Army headquarter assistant. The British government was under the impression that Shandilya was dead, he stated.
When he met Shandilya in Austria he could not get much information from the veteran freedom fighter who grew emotional when he talked about Netaji. He gave the information about the house of Netaji in Austria. Later, a person named Koushal arranged for a telephonic conversation with Netaji's daughter-in-law Maya, who is living in Germany. Netaji's daughter Anita Pfaff (60 years) is living in Austria at present.