26/11: Vinita Kamte's book kicks up a storm

Vinita Kamte, wife of IPS officer Ashok Kamte who died fighting terrorists during 26/11 Mumbai attack, has criticized Joint Police Commissioner(Crime) Rakesh Maria, for denying that he did not guide her husband to Cama hospital.

In her book titled The Last Bullet, Vinita has questioned why Maria, who took charge of police control room during the 59-hour siege, had denied knowledge of how Ashok, Additional Police Commissioner (East), went to Cama Hospital.
The book was released on Tuesday by noted social activist Aruna Roy and former Mumbai Police commissioner Julio Rebeiro in Mumbai.

According to wireless excerpts between the control room and the eastern region, Vinita, who accessed the conversations using RTI Act, said Maria had asked Ashok to go to Cama hospital as firing was on by the terrorists.

"Firing going on at Cama hospital and you have to come there," she said quoting the conversation between the Control Room and Eastern Region at 23.33 hours on November 26.

Contacted, Maria refused to comment, saying he had said whatever he had to before the Pradhan Committee, which examined different aspects of the attacks.

The martyred IPS officer's widow also claimed that her husband Ashok Kamte had been directed by Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor (currently DG-housing) to head towards Trident Hotel, another place attacked by terrorists.

Gafoor too stirred a controversy recently in an interview to a news magazine, where was quoted as saying "a section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so, they chose to ignore the need of the hour."

"When I met Hasan Gafoor, the commissioner said he was not aware as to how Ashok landed up at Cama hospital, when he himself had summoned him to the Trident Hotel. But somehow, beyond a point, Gafoor appeared unwilling to go into the details. I was disappointed," Vinita said.

 After the release of her book, she said there were still many unanswered questions about the circumstances in which her husband was killed.

 "There were no clear answers forthcoming for simple and basic questions. In fact, even today we have no clear answers and many questions are yet to be answered," she said.

She had also alleged that her IPS officer-husband did not get any help for about 40 minutes after being shot by the terrorists.
"It was very unfortunate that I had to get the post-mortem report through the Right to Information Act," Vinita said.

Buy To the Last Bullet at Rediff Books