Former IPS officer KPS Gill. Former IPS officer KPS Gill.

Giving clean chit to the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, former IPS officer KPS Gill on Friday said that Modi cannot be blamed for Gujarat riots.Gill who was the security adviser to Narendra Modi in 20012 said in law and order cases police must respond."From my first-hand experience of Gujarat situation, I can say with conviction that Gujarat riots were not the failure of Mr Narendra Modi; instead it was the failure of Gujarat cops as well as the intentions of the neighbouring states which had then denied forces to Gujarat when the riots started," the book quotes Gill as saying.Gill was speaking at the launch of his biography - 'KPS Gill: The Paramount Cop' where the gathering included eminent personalities like Punjab Kesari Group Editor-in-Chief Vijay Kumar Chopra, Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, former CBI Director P C Sharma and others.In the book, Gill has lavished praise on Modi saying he had "sincere" intentions to end the violence and accused other parties of trying to defame him."I realised that people of all political parties who were anti-Modi and anti-BJP were taking advantage of this mayhem and making all efforts to defame Modi one way or the other," he says.He charged the policemen and the administration had become communal after the incident in Godhra and Modi, who had just become the CM, did not have proper grip over the state machinery.Speaking to reporters, he said that after taking charge as the security advisor of the state, he had visited all places where violence had taken place and policemen from top to bottom refuted having received any direction of the type being mentioned.He also said a majority of the deaths in the riots had taken place in 5-6 incidents.Addressing the audience, Gill said some of his family members did not like his comments.He told reporters that while his family members had been reading newspapers, he had experienced the developments.Gill had been appointed in May, 2002, as the security advisor to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to bolster efforts to effectively check communal violence in the state.Vijay Kumar Chopra, Editor-in-Chief of Punjab Kesari, lauded Gill's stint as DGP of Punjab and said he had "infused a new life in a lifeless police force".Comparing Gill with legendary Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa, Chopra said he has been a big factor in restoring normalcy in the state wracked by militancy in 1980s.Shekhar Gupta said he had the fortune to be a fellow traveller who witnessed Gill as a police officer in Assam where his reading of ground reality was far more realistic than those around him.He added that in his interactions with Gill during his reporting years, he realised that even in Punjab he could diagnose and predict situations with great clarity.P C Sharma said Gill thoroughly backed officers who had worked under him.The biographer Rahul Chandan said he had grown up in Punjab and heard stories about Gill and felt he had engaged in a worthwhile pursuit.