Ahmedabad, April 23: The ?semi-official? diary of a sidelined cop is threatening to open a can of riot worms for the Narendra Modi government.

Additional director general of police R.B. Sreekumar has submitted his diary before the Central Administrative Tribunal to challenge his recent sidelining, which he claims was done because ?he did not toe the government line?.

The diary records his interactions with Modi and his mandarins between April 16 and September 19, 2002, and notes how the Gujarat government had tried to pressure him to go soft on rioters and target minorities during the post-Godhra flare-up.

It gives a day-to-day account of orders given to him during his term as state intelligence chief, including those to ?eliminate? minorities, overlook the doings the Sangh parivar and distort facts about the prevailing ground situation.

In a news conference today, Sreekumar?s counsel Girish Patel said the diary was not a private document as claimed by the Modi regime but a ?semi-official? one stamped and signed on every page by then inspector-general of administration .P. Mathur.

Patel said the importance of the diary derived from each of its 207 pages being signed by Mathur. He said Sreekumar had begun maintaining the diary after realising he was being given ?illegal? and ?improper? orders on handling the minorities during the riots.

Mathur could not be contacted for comment. But Gujarat home minister Amit Shah told a TV channel just after the news conference that Mathur had clarified he had signed the diary?s blank pages without any idea of what the contents would be.

?We do not claim that .P. Mathur stands by its contents. He might have signed the blank diary, yet it is contemporary evidence which can be authenticated by the forensic science laboratory. It is genuine and semi-official,? Patel said.

He threatened to drag Modi and his men to the tribunal if the state government challenged the authenticity of the diary.

Sreekumar?s petition against his sidelining will come up before the tribunal on May 9. He had alleged that he was sidelined because he defied the government line, a charge denied by the Modi regime.

Patel refuted the charge that Sreekumar was making baseless allegations because he had a grudge against the government.

?Sreekumar has made his stand clear right since the day he took charge as state IB chief,? he said.

Nothing that was said in his petition was unknown, so there was no question of ?political motivation?, he said.