Probe told Netaji was seen in Siberian camp in ’48-49

CALCUTTA, OCT 4: A retired PSU official, ARDHENDU Sarkar, kept his meeting with a Russian engineer in 1962 a secret for nearly four decade...

CALCUTTA, OCT 4: A retired PSU official, ARDHENDU Sarkar, kept his meeting with a Russian engineer in 1962 a secret for nearly four decades, until last week. Deposing before the Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee Commission, set up to probe Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s disappearance, Sarkar disclosed that the engineer known as Zerobin had revealed to him that Bose had been seen in a Siberian `VIP camp’ in 1948-49.

Sarkar also informed that he had revealed this information to only two others — Professor Samar Guha, who had been an MP during the Morarji Desai government at the Centre, and a newspaper reporter in 1989.

Zerobin, a German caught by the Red Army and brought to Russia, reportedly knew Bose from the Second World War days in his native country. Bose was negotiating at the time with Hitler and Italian dictator Mussolini for their help in the Indian freedom movement. Zerobin, a student in Berlin University then, apparently met him at a group meeting. In 1948-49, Sarkar told the Mukherjee commission, Zerobin met Bose again, at a Siberian VIP camp.

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“Zerobin told me that Netaji was looked after well and was given a car and a personal attendant at the camp,” Sarkar informed Justice Mukherjee. “Zerobin also informed me that the camp was accessible only by a helicopter.”

Zerobin himself had apparently been captured by the Red Army during its invasion of Germany and taken to the Siberia camp. Zerobin finally settled down in Russia and married there. Sarkar, however, couldn’t recall the name of Zerobin’s wife.

Sarkar claimed he met Zerobin when he was sent to Russia by his office, Heavy Engineering Corporation. He says he took the information that Zerobin gave him to the Indian Embassy in Moscow sometime in June or July in 1962, but was shocked at their response. Sarkar was reportedly told by the secretary of the Indian ambassador then that “I shouldn’t discuss this information with anyone, nor disclose it. I should mind my own business and do what I had been sent for”.

Sarkar also claimed that after he “disclosed” this to the Embassy officials, he was recalled to India in August the same year by his company. He alleged that the Embassy complained about “my meddling in something which I was not supposed to”.

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“A brilliant engineer from Berlin University, Zerobin later became a top official in Gorlovka Machine Building Plant in Ukraine,” Sarkar also told the commission. He added that Zerobin may have died by now of old age.

When Justice Mukherjee asked Sarkar why he had kept this information to himself for so long, the latter replied that he feared this would jeopardise his career prospects. Since he retired in 1970, Sarkar added, he hadn’t had an occasion to disclose the information.