KOLKATA: Dubbing as "historic" the release of 64 files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by the West Bengal government, his family on Friday also pushed for the declassification of files by the central government.
The Bengal government on Friday made public 64 files to help unravel the mystery behind his disappearance.
"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has done a great thing and now the Centre has no other option but to declassify the files it has," Netaji's grandnephew and family spokesperson Chandra Kumar Bose told the media here after the release.
The digitised version of the declassified 64 files were made available in a set of seven DVDs. The original files are housed at the Calcutta Police Museum. The files will be accessible to the public from Monday on a first-come-first-serve basis.
"The more important files that can unravel the mystery behind his disappearance are with the central government departments and the mystery can be solved only if those files are declassified," Chandra Kumar Bose said.
The files declassified on Friday consists 12,744 pages and are available to researchers and scholars.
They were handed over to the descendants of Netaji and media persons by Kolkata Police Commissioner S.K. Purkayastha at a small ceremony at the museum.
The first copy was handed over to Netaji's niece-in-law and former Trinamool Congress MP Krishna Bose.
Banerjee on September 11 announced her government's decision to declassify 64 files on Bose, saying the mystery surrounding his disappearance needs to be put to rest.
"Still the mystery surrounding Netaji's disappearance continues to be unsolved. So whatever files we have, we will declassify them which may help in unravelling the mystery.
"...all the 64 files that we have will be open for public. They will be kept at the city police archive," said Banerjee.
Chandra Kumar Bose said that Banerjee has "shown the way and now the Centre has to release the files."