Freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's family has approached the Calcutta High Court seeking direction to the Centre to take stop steps to prevent "distortion" of historic facts. The family is unhappy about theories like Netaji living in disguise even after being rejected by all the commissions.
One of the popular theories about Subhash Chandra Bose is his living as Gumnami Baba in independent India.
The PIL claimed that the lives and achievements of national heroes are being distorted in films and various forms of media. It alleged private profiteering by spreading various unverified theories through films and mass media. The petition requests that events depicted in films, books, and other media be verified before being brought to the public.
Petitioners also claimed that the Government of India has already conducted different inquiry commissions on Netaji and reports of these have been published and admitted in the Parliament.
Lawyer Sattwik Majumder said the PIL is likely to be listed for a hearing next week.
Petitioners Saumya Shankar Bose and Chandra Kumar Bose said they want to preserve the correct narrative of Indian history. "The history of the Indian freedom movement and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose must be told without any imaginative prose or conspiracy theories." They added that Netaji is not a character out of mythology or fiction. "His life and legacy are not open to the imagination and fantasy of rumour mongers and storytellers."