Bengal govt declassifies 64 Netaji files at Kolkata police academy

The West Bengal government declassified 64 closely-guarded files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at an event at a police museum in Kolkata on Friday.

“There are 12,744 pages in total in these files. All have been digitised. It was quite a stupendous task,” said Kolkata Police commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha.

People will, however, not immediately have direct access to the document. The common people can access the content from Monday (September 21).

“(For now)...public will get to see the original files that will be kept in a glass case,” Purkayastha said.

The programme began at 10:20am and lasted about 30 minutes. It was attended by Bose family members, researchers and mediapersons. Tight security was in place to manage a big crowd that never turned up.

Police commissioner Purkayastha handed over the first DVD containing the information in the files to Krishna Bose, wife of Netaji’s nephew and aide Sisir Bose.

Bose family members and researchers have repeatedly maintained that the secret files lying in Delhi are of real significance as they contain the answer to the key questions on the disappearance of the firebrand leader and the subsequent years. The files with the Centre are about 130 in number.

Out of the 64 files declassified on Friday, nine belonged to the Intelligence Branch and the remaining 55 to the Kolkata Police special branch (intelligence wing). All were stored in an office on Lord Sinha Road in south Kolkata.

Surprisingly, Kolkata’s response was lukewarm to the occasion, though the issue hogged media limelight since chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced just a week ago (on September 11) that her administration will bring the files in the public domain.

HT spoke to students of a few prominent colleges in the city on Thursday evening. Though there was some amount of curiosity, none said that he/she visit the museum and pore over the files.