India’s 75th: Abdullah Sheltered Netaji on His Last Night in India

JHARKHAND, (IANS) – Gomoh, a small town in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district, has a significant association with the legendary freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

When Netaji left the country to fulfill his mission to wage an armed struggle for Independence and to establish the Azad Hind Fauj, he spent the last night there.

From the railway station he took the Kalka Mail Express and left for Peshawar. Gomoh junction is now known as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose junction.

It was on January 18, 1941, when Netaji, who was placed under house arrest by the British government at his residence on Elgin Road, Kolkata, escaped by deceiving the British police.

After leaving his Calcutta residence, Netaji reached Gomoh with his nephew Shishir Bose in his ‘Baby Austin’ car and reached the house of his lawyer friend Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who lived in Loco Bazar in Jharkhand.

At the behest of Sheikh Abdullah, Ameen tailor of Gomoh hastily prepared Pathani clothes for Netaji. On the same day, Ameen Tailor took Netaji to the station at 1 a.m. where he finally boarded the train from platform number three dressed as a ‘Pathan.’

In 2021, the Indian Railways renamed the Kalka Express as Netaji Express. This incident of Subhash Chandra Bose leaving the country is etched in the pages of history as ‘The Great Escape’.

To preserve and keep alive the memories of ‘The Great Escape’, a life-size bronze statue of Netaji has been installed between Platform No. 1-2 of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose junction in Jharkhand.