Netaji’s Missing Treasure: What Happened to the INA collections?

Recently declassified Netaji files reveal that no probe was ordered to locate the gold he collected for the INA.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose (Courtesy: Netaji.org)

An exclusive article published by India Today has thrown up startling information regarding the staggering gold and money Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose collected for the Indian National Army (INA). This information, contained in the 37 secret files which were recently declassified, demonstrate how no probe was ever ordered to locate, or retrieve these treasures.

The Man who Got Weighed in Gold

Netaji, photographed in 1934. (Courtesy: Netaji.org)

One out of the 37 declassified files, dealing with the “INA Treasure”, contains secret reports and correspondences pertaining to the indiscriminate looting of the treasury of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (PGAH), after its collapse following Netaji’s death in 1945, by Indian freedom fighters.

According to the classified papers accessed by India Today, no effort was made on part of the then government to do anything about the suspected loot. The papers show that the Nehru government ignored repeated reports of warning filed by three mission heads from Tokyo between 1947 and 1953.

In January 1945, Netaji is said to have collected donations worth Rs 2 crore for the INA. In Rangoon, capital of the then Japanese-occupied Burma, a week long celebration of Netaji’s 48th birthday ensued. As part of the celebration, Netaji is said to have been weighed against gold to be donated to the INA. An astounding 80 kg of gold is suspected to have been collected.

All That Burned Was Not all the Gold

Netaji reviewing his troops in Singapore, 1943. (Courtesy: Netaji.org)

When Netaji retreated to Bangkok in August, 1945, he was allegedly carrying about 63.5 kg of gold. He was likely to have had the same on him when he boarded the fateful Japanese bomber in Saigon. The gold was said to have been contained in two 18-inch long leather attaches. But Japanese armymen only retrieved about 11 kg of charred remains of the gold. What happened to the rest of it? It is impossible that over 63 kg of gold melted down to about 11 kg. This 11 kg of gold was secretly brought into India from Japan, and now rests at the National Museum.

Several diplomatic missions, and innumerable secret correspondences involving key officials connected with the operation all point towards serious loopholes in information, providing no logical conclusion to where the rest of the treasury went, or why no concerted efforts were made to obtain them.