“Devil Wears ‘Khaadi’ (The Unmasking of Romesh Sharma)” continues…

It so happened that an Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police was keeping certain telephone numbers of Chhota Shakeel, Dawood Ibrahim’s right hand man, under lawful interception. A call, originating from a senior leader of the aforesaid political party, to Chota Shakeel was intercepted in which the caller told Shakeel that Netaji, the party’s leader, had informed him that I had met him (Netaji) and tipped him off that I had been tasked by the Government of the day to keep a tab on him. Even though this information, prima facie, was preposterous, when the ACP shared it with his seniors, one of them, not on the friendliest of terms with me, found it extremely useful in getting at me. He asked the ACP to prepare a transcript and to doctor it in such a way that I get into serious trouble. The ACP declined to distort the transcript and submitted a true reproduction. My ‘friend’ shot off a letter to the Union Home Secretary with a copy of the taped conversation and its transcript suggesting that I had links with the underworld. It was déjà vu for me. I had gone through the same experience only a couple of months earlier. I was again summoned to the Director’s office and once again Gopal Achari, the Special Director, came to my rescue. He explained to the Director that the conversation was between two criminals and could not be taken on face value. Secondly, the contents of the intercept were patently preposterous and deserved to be junked. Firstly, I had not been asked by the government to keep an eye on the political leader. Secondly, even if it was so, why would I inform the concerned politician that I was keeping him under surveillance? The Director, presumably, explained the situation to the Union Home Secretary on similar lines and requested him to outright reject the insinuation made by my colleague in the Delhi Police.

To be continued.....