Netaji files: Declassified documents say crucial papers on his death were destroyed in 1972

Crucial files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death were destroyed by the Central government decades back, according to one of the 25 declassified files on Netaji released on Friday.

According to a Times of India report, the declassified documents say that some papers related to the investigation into Netaji's death were destroyed in "routine course" by the Central government in 1972. This was reportedly revealed when the Justice Mukherjee commission sought PMO file - 12 (226)56-PM - in 2001. The Prime Minister's Office had then responded to the commission saying that the summary contents of the file could still be found in the cabinet secretariat.

However, the deputy secretary of the cabinet secretariat had "no record relating to the contents of the file as it was formed only on September 21, 1968," the report said.

The Mukherjee commission had noted in its report that the availability of the file would have helped it arrive at the truth.

The government on Friday released a third batch of declassified files related to the freedom fighter. The documents consist of five files each from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Home Ministry, and 15 files from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) pertaining to the period between 1956 and 2009.

The first lot of 100 files relating to Netaji, after their preliminary conservation treatment and digitization, were put in the public domain on January 23. The second lot of 50 files was released on March 29.