Some family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose have sought intervention of the RSS in the declassification of secret files, held by the central government, on the disappearance of the freedom fighter. Several members of the family, led by Chitra Ghosh and Dr D N Bose, Netaji's niece and nephew respectively, met top RSS functionary Indresh Kumar in Kolkata last evening to impress upon him the need to declassify the files on Netaji.

The move followed the Narendra Modi government's refusal to release the secret files, many of which are about Netaji's disappearance, as did the previous governments, citing possible adverse impact on relation with other nations.

"Justice Mukherjee (head of one-man commission of inquiry set up by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government) also noted in his report that vital documents held by the Government of India were not made available to him, and that this had hampered his quest for the truth in the disappearance," read a letter signed by Netaji's niece Chitra Ghosh and Chandra Kumar Bose and Abhijit Ray, Netaji's grandnephews, which was handed over to Kumar.

The family also called for setting up of a Special Investigation Team under the guidance of a leading judge of the Supreme Court to investigate into Netaji's disappearance mystery. Chandra Kumar Bose, spokesperson for the Bose family, said that the interaction with Kumar had been positive and that the Sangh official promised to take the matter up with the government.

The family members argued that as long the central government continued to hold the secret files, it cannot be in a position to take up the issue of classified records on Netaji possibly held by foreign governments. Writer and activist Anuj Dhar, whose 2012 book "India's biggest cover-up" rekindled the demand for declassification, said it was imperative that the RSS took up the issue.

When under house arrest by the British in then Calcutta, Netaji had escaped in 1941 to seek international support for his efforts to free his country and formed the Indian National Army with Japanese help. He went missing in 1945. The Mukherjee Commission, had rejected the opinion that he had died in a plane crash at Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.