Netaji files, to be declassified today, may not solve riddle on his disappearance

Kolkata/New Delhi: While the nation awaits the declassification of the secret Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose files on the leader's 119th birth anniversary, chances are bleak that the hidden pages would solve his disappearance mystery. In the light of newer theories claiming credibility, CNN-IBN attempts to take a fresh look at the layers which shroud Netaji's possible fate.

The official story of Netaji perishing in an air crash has been fiercely contested by many. However, some members of the Bose family think that vital leads may lie outside the country's boundaries.

"We need to concentrate on all the intelligence files within the country, outside the country, with Great Britain, the Mi5, Mi6 files… all these have to be declassified," said Netaji's grand nephew Chandra Kumar Bose.

However, many in the Bose family dismiss the conspiracy theories.

According to Krishna Bose, chairperson of Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, "It makes me sad when people are all the time concentrating on how he died rather than on how he lived."

There is no convincing answer on why the Indian establishment would snoop on the Bose family for nearly three decades after Independence, something that the 64 declassified files with the West Bengal government have already proved, if it did not believe in the possibility of Bose being alive well beyond 1945.

While the disclosure of the Central files is most likely to throw some light on why they were kept under wraps for so long, experts believe they may not be enough to solve the riddle on Netaji's disappearance. For that the relevant intelligence files of some foreign nations, especially Russia, Japan, UK and Germany must also be made public.