'Pranab Mukherjee had met Gumnami Baba as Congress mantri'

LUCKNOW: The mystery surrounding Gumnami Baba, who many believe was Subhas Chandra Bose, took a curious turn on Tuesday when the Sahai Commission was informed that President Pranab Mukherjee had met him in Faizabad in the 1980s when he was a Union minister in the Congress government.

Ravindra Shukla (57), who was in touch with Gumnami Baba and one of the 13 people who witnessed his funeral at Guptaar Ghat, admitted before the commission that Mukherjee visited him once, during Navratra in October.

Shukla told TOI: "It was around 1981-82 when I was instructed by Bhagwanji to accompany a Bengali gentleman to the local market. The Bengali gentleman was staying at Ayodhya's Birla Dharamshala. I ferried the gentleman on my Yezdi motorcycle to Chowk area of Faizabad, where he purchased clothes and some dry fruits."

He added that the clothes were purchased from a prominent shop (Kanhaiyya Lal Baldev). "After this, I dropped the gentleman at Birla Dharamshala. Since I stayed with the Bengali gentleman for a long time, I could recall his face. Later, when he became a Union minister and subsequently the President, I could easily recall and recollect that the person whom I took to the market was Pranab Mukherjee," Shukla wrote in his submission to the commission.

Mukherjee was minister of commerce and steel & mines from January 1980 to January 1982. He was finance minister from January 1982 to December 1984.

"I had never seen Bhagwanji (Baba) till the time he was alive (sic) but had the opportunity of getting blessed by him, physically touching his feet and even repairing his room cooler (while covered in a blanket or bedsheet).The first time I saw Bhagwanji with my own eyes was after he passed away, and he closely resembled Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose," Shukla said.

The Sahai Commission was conducting the hearing in Faizabad on Tuesday, when Shukla made the revelation.