Kolkata/Nagpur: The West Bengal Police has declassified 64 files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and handed them over to his family members. The files will be open for public viewing in the from Monday at Kolkata Police Museum.
“There are 64 files that contain 12744 pages. All files have been digitized,” Kolkata Police Commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha said.
Several members of Netaji’s family were present at the ceremony on Friday when the files were declassified. The ones present include wife of Netaji’s nephew Krishna Bose.
While the files were released on the orders of the West Bengal government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee skipped the event. It is being said that she missed the event as she did not want to politicise the event. Not just Mamata, no public representatives were present at the venue.
Declassifying these files related to Netaji has been a long standing demand. The files date back to the period between 1937 to 1947 and are expected to throw light on Netaji’s mysterious disappearance.
The Prime Minister’s Office in August told the Central Information Commission that it cannot declassify files related to Bose as it will adversely affect relations with foreign countries.
During the hearing before the CIC, the PMO admitted that it has files related to Bose but did not give any specifics and submitted that they cannot be declassified keeping in mind the relations with foreign countries.
