Freedom fighter Netaji Subash Chandra Bose was ‘alive’ and ‘somewhere in Manchuria, China’ in 1948, one of his trusted aides, Deb Nath Das, had claimed then, according to the declassified files by the West Bengal government.

Among the released dossier, file No. 22 sheds light on intelligence gathered by the Bengal government (office of the deputy commissioner of police), on INA leaders, including Das.

An extract dated August 9, 1948, says: “Deb Nath Das, an ex-INA leader who is actively engaged in anti-Congress propaganda, is preaching in political and party circles that Netaji Subash Chandra Bose is alive and is somewhere in Manchuria, China at present.”

“To rouse the curiosity and even belief of the people, he (Das) says that Netaji told him before the plane-crash that the possibility of a third world war would emerge in the wake of the second world war.”

On August 22, 1945, Tokyo Radio announced the “death” of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in an air crash in Formosa (now Taiwan) on August 18, 1945, en route to Japan.

But the crash theory has been rejected by scores of Bose’s followers and admirers and claims of the revolutionary leader resurfacing continue to intrigue and divide Indians over the years.

Adding to the controversy, the extract further states that Das had asserted that in 1948 Bose was keeping tabs on the international as well as national scenario.

“Das adds that Netaji is watching both the international and national situation, vis-A-vis India, to find out as to which among the foreign powers was her friend or enemy. There is a talk that Deb Nath Das may contest the by-election from south Calcutta constituency of the West Bengal Assembly.”

Das, according to a declassified 1948 confidential diary page of the Calcutta police, was known to give “fiery lectures” against the then Indian government.

“Except for the meetings attended or presided over by Das, in which he always gave fiery lectures against the government of India, nothing else could be known of his anti-Congress activities.”

In a shocking case of Islamic State radicalisation in India, a young Hindu woman from Delhi had planned to go Syria to support ISIS but, luckily, her father found out about her plan and sought help of the National Investigation Agency.

The woman, in her mid-20s, had graduated from a premier Delhi University college and went to Australia for post-graduate studies. As per her father, a retired Army Lt Colonel, she was a changed person after her visit Down Under.

The report said that the former Army officer had accidentally stumbled upon evidence – on her computer – about his daughter’s plan to travel to Syria and that she was in touch with an alleged IS recruiter for the same.

The former Army man immediate got in touch with the NIA. The agency brought the Intelligence Bureau into the loop on the matter.

The report claimed that sleuths from the agencies have trying to convince the woman that joining the IS was a bad idea.

The report added that there were two Hindus who were recently deported from the UAE on alleged charges of indulging in IS propaganda. However, the report says their case was different as they had come under the scanner due to their friendship with some youth involved with the Islamic State.

As Indians we may be used to witnessing instances of gross negligence but what happened in Katni in Madhya Pradesh has crossed all limits of the pathetic state of affairs in the country.

In a shocking turn of events, a 45-year-old – allegedly in a drunken state – accidentally slipped into a pit at an under-construction road in Katni district and was buried alive after careless construction workers filled up the space with molten bituminous material and ran a dumper over it to level the stretch.

The matter would have gone unnoticed had the residents of the area not found the man’s arm sticking out from the tarred road. The deceased has been identified as Latori Lal.

As per reports, the workers could not see the man lying the pothole as it was dark – the incident occurred last Friday – and, apparently, did not care to check.

The driver of the dumper and a labourer who had filled the pothole without noticing the man have been arrested.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Monday managed to evacuate two trapped workers after over 200 hours of their ordeal, after a tunnel under construction collapsed here in Himachal Pradesh on September 12. However, the whereabouts of the third worker were not known yet.

In a quick reaction over the success in the tunnel mishap, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said, “Relieved that two workers have been rescued, operation will not stop till the third worker is found.”

“We managed to evacuate Mani Ram and Satish Tomar, who were stuck in the tunnel since September 21. Both are fine and have been taken to the nearby zonal hospital in Bilaspur (town) for examination,” Jaideep Singh, commanding officer of NDRF said.

Rescuers had earlier managed to penetrate the roof of the tunnel and were able to come closer to evacuate two workers stuck in it for over 200 hours in Himachal Pradesh.

The two trapped workers — Mani Ram and Satish Tomar – were in regular touch with the rescuers through a microphone linked with a webcam. They were also provided dry fruits and glucose.

However, the whereabouts of the third worker, Hirdya Ram, are not known yet.

For the past five days, a 50-odd member team comprising engineers, technical staff and geologists drilled a 42-metre vertical shaft through the mountain in its bid to rescue the workers.

A snag in the drilling machine hampered the evacuation throughout Sunday.

Of the 1.2-km proposed traffic tunnel of the Kiratpur-Manali expressway road project, 275 metres was excavated when disaster struck on September 12.

The contract for tunnel laying, involving an outlay of Rs 82 crore, has been assigned to the Chandigarh-based Himalayan Construction Co, three of whose workers, belonging to the hill state, were trapped.