West Bengal government declassifies 64 Netaji files

Sixty-four files, which were with the West government, were unveiled on Friday.

West Begal CM Mamata Banerjee said: "We all know the birth date of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. We do not know about his death."

"The files declassified today were in the possession of WB Govt. We have fulfilled our responsibility to the people," she said.

She said people of India must know about the final days of the leader.

"We have made the beginning. People must know about the final days of Netaji. He must get his due recognition," Banerjee said.

"From the files I saw, it was clear family of Netaji was snooped on. There are intercepts," she said.

Banerjee said the declassification of the files will not cause any law and order problem in the state.

"It is unfortunate that so many years after independence Netaji has not got his due honour," she said.

Members of Netaji's family and many researchers were among those who had been demanding that the files relating to Netaji be made public to let people know the facts  that remained unknown for decades. However, many more files relating to Netaji are lying with the centre which are yet to be declassified. More files are believed to be in possession of Russia, the country Netaji visited after escaping from British India in the 1940s.

Netaji's grand nephew Chandra Bose  welcomed the state government's decision  and said that the Centre should take a cue from  this move and release all 135 files with the government.

"We hope that the NDA government take a cue from this and release the 135 files that is there with the Centre," he said.