After 30 years, the belongings of Gumnami Baba were unlocked from Faizabad treasury on Friday. The belongings will be sent for chemical treatment after which it will be placed in Ram Katha Sangrahalaya in Ayodhya.
A 10-member administrative committee, led by district magistrate of Faizabad Yogeshwar Ram Mishra, prepared the inventory of the belongings of Gumnami Baba in the presence of a team that carried out photography and videography of the proceedings.
The DM said that 176 items had been unlocked which included a pair of spectacles, a Rolex watch, a few letters from the family-members of Netaji, newspaper cuttings, and the uniform of the Azad Hind Fauj.
He added that the process of photography and videography of all the items of Gumnami Baba would take 6-7 days after which the belongings would be sent for chemical processing. Mishra said the public display of the belongings would be possible only by the end of March.
Many believe that Gumnami Baba alias Bhagwanji was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Gumnami Baba spent his last days in the house (Ram Bhawan) of a local BJP leader Shakti Singh before he died on September 16, 1985.
After the belongings of Gumnami Baba were revealed after his death, a debate began that the seer was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Lalita Bose, the niece of Netaji, had also claimed in February 1986 that Gumnami Baba was in fact Subhas Chandra Bose and brought the matter to the notice of Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court.
The court had directed the district administration to preserve the belongings of Gumnami Baba. The district administration shifted 2,760 belongings found in 25 iron boxes to the double lock of district treasury in 1986.
Later, Shakti Singh, the owner of Ram Bhawan, also pursued the matter till the high court gave its decision on January 31, 2013.
The court directed the UP government to publically display the belongings of Gumnami Baba in a museum. It took three years for the authorities to comply with the court’s decision.
