After Netaji snooping row, Bhagat Singh's nephew claims family kept under watch

Chandigarh: Amid controversy over Intelligence Bureau keeping relatives of Subhas Chandra Bose under close watch, kin of 'Shaheed-e-Azam' Bhagat Singh on Sunday claimed that the martyr's family had also been kept under "surveillance" for several years and demanded that the government declassify all files pertaining to him.

"Our family had been under surveillance for years. Our phone conversations, too, had been under the scanner for years," Bhagat Singh's 57-year-old nephew, Abhay Singh Sandhu told reporters in Mohali.

He said the family had been on the radar since the British rule and claimed that "even after the country gained freedom, we were under watch of the intelligence agencies."

Sandhu also demanded that the files pertaining to Sardar Ajit Singh, a freedom fighter and uncle of Bhagat Singh, also be declassified.

"We want to know everything which the then British Government wrote about Sardar Ajit Singh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh. All records should be declassified. Why should Government hide (records). We are hoping that the present Central government will take a step in this regard soon," Sandhu said.

Sandhu is son of Bhagat Singh's younger brother Sardar Kulbir Singh, who was born in 1914 and was Jansangh MLA from Ferozepur.

"My father, late Sardar Kulbir Singh, tried to obtain files or records pertaining to the two which have been kept in National Archives in Delhi," Sandhu said, adding over the years they had been told that the files were "secret" and not transferable for 20-30 years.

"My father passed away in 1983, but even after that when we tried to raise the demand we were given the same answer", he alleged.

He said his family tried to access the documents even after Kulbir Singh's death but in vain.