Sharma is an IPS officer from the Gujrat Cadre 1987 Batch. He joined the CBI in April 2015. This is not for the first time that Sharma is at the centre of a controversy. Sharma’s name had cropped up during the investigation of the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. He, allegedly, in connivance with the other officers, tried to delay the investigation.

Sharma’s name also surfaced in the infamous snooping controversy on a young woman architect. She was reportedly kept under watch by a senior Gujarat police official on the alleged instruction of the then Minister of State for Home Amit Shah.

Is the CBI trying to protect its senior official, who is reportedly close to senior BJP leaders, by nailing down a junior CBI official in a major goof-up? Was there an undertable understanding between the CBI and Mallya in toning down the LOC? Or was it political pressure that forced the agency to revise Mallya’s LOC?