Are there any secret files regarding the death of Netaji?
2 Jan, 2014
An application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) seeking a list of ‘secret files concerning Netaji being held by the West Bengal government departments and agencies’. The applicant, Anuj Dhar, sought to know ‘the reason why these files are still being held secret in this age and time’ and also ‘whether the government is planning to declassify these files’. He is yet to receive a reply from the CMO.
More than 30 members of the family of Bose had written to the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking her intervention in getting the alleged secret Central government Netaji files declassified. However, the CMO did not even acknowledge the receipt of the letter and the attempts to meet the CM were unsuccessful. Netaji's grandnephew, Chandra Kumar Bose, is ‘not surprised’ with the CMO's inaction and has demanded disclosure of the information.
Dhar is an author and has written three books on Netaji. He has now filed a complaint with the West Bengal State Information Commission following non receipt of a reply to the application filed under the Right to Information Act. He claimed that while he was working as a journalist, he had learnt that WB government was holding several dozen classified files concerning Netaji, many of which were related to the controversy surrounding his reported death.