Meet Shaulmari Baba: The sadhu who was mistaken for Subhas Chandra Bose

After two leaked Intelligence Bureau (IB) documents claimed that the Jawaharlal Nehru government had snooped on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family for about 20 years, another set of recently declassified documents reportedly show that the West Bengal intelligence branch had also snooped on a sadhu (ascetic), suspecting he was really Bose in hiding. [caption id=“attachment_2205104” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A sadhu was mistaken as Subhas Chandra Bose and snooped on by the Bengal govt. Reuters[/caption] According to a report in Hindustan Times, detectives snooped on Sadhu Saradananda, also called Shaulmari Baba, for several years in his 60’s because of his strange habits like an aversion to being photographed or leaving finger prints anywhere. The report added that the sadhu would even cover his face with a woolen wrapper when a doctor visited him so that he could hide his identity. He also refused to give a blood sample or take an X-ray examination, according to the report. As the recent claim made by the IB files sparked debate on the declassification of the Netaji files, the government last week formed an inter-ministerial committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary to review the Official Secrets Act in the context of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose files. As per reports, the committee will also include officials from Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) departments. Family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will meet Prime Minster Narendra Modi on 17 May and press for declassification of more secret files. “We had written to the Prime Minister requesting for time to discuss the issue. A couple of days back we received a letter from the PMO inviting us on 17 May,” Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose had told PTI. Besides demanding declassification of the secret files, they will also request the Prime Minister to form a Special Investigative Team to look into the content of the secret files once they are declassified, Bose had stated. (With inputs from PTI)