An FIR was registered at a Kolkata police station on Sunday against Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, after he mentioned the date of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death in a tribute post on his official X handle on January 23, marking the leader's birth anniversary.
The FIR was lodged by the self-proclaimed Hindutva group, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, at Bhawanipur Police Station in South Kolkata. Following the filing of the FIR, members of the group staged protests near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's ancestral home on Elgin Road, also in South Kolkata, condemning the controversial content of Rahul Gandhi's post.
According to the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha state president Chandrachud Goswami, Rahul Gandhi is carrying the same legacy who first forced Netaji to quit Congress and thereafter leave the country. "Rahul Gandhi and his ancestors always try to wipe out the memories of Netaji from the memory of the people of India. The people of India will punish him. As for us, we will always be protesting if anyone tries to distort information on Netaji," Goswami said.
Earlier this week, the Congress MP, in a post on X, referred to August 18, 1945, as the reported date of death of the iconic freedom fighter. This date coincides with the day the plane carrying Netaji, en route from Saigon to the USSR-occupied Manchuria, crashed in Taihoku (now Taipei).
However, none of the commissions established to investigate Netaji's 'disappearance' have been able to confirm August 18, 1945, as the definitive date of his death, leaving the fate of the freedom fighter shrouded in mystery.