Book on post-Godhra events submitted to Nanavati panel

Excerpts of a book written by a former Indian Administrative Service officer have been submitted to the Nanavati-Mehta Commission, probing the post-Godhra riots, by a former Gujarat director general of police saying they contain 'relevant material' for the panel.

The state's former police chief R B Sreekumar recently submitted the excerpts of 'The Insider's View: Memoirs of a Public Servant', authored by Javid Chowdhury to the commission.

"Recently, I had glanced at an autobiography penned by Javid Chowdhury and the chapter titled 'Discharge of Rajdharma? 2002' contained a lot of relevant material for the

Commission," said Sreekumar in his letter to the Commission and showed his willingness to depose before it on the issue.

In his book, Chowdhury, a Gujarat cadre officer of 1965 batch who served as Union health secretary in 2002, gives an 'eye-witness account' of how the Narendra Modi government had 'stonewalled the offer' of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of medical aid for the victims of riots and even 'threatened' the then Union health minister not to visit a relief camp in Shah-e-alam.

The book was published last year.