The Gujarat government on Friday promoted IPS officer Arun Kumar Sharma to the rank of Director General of Police (DGP) and appointed him as DGP, Prevention of Atrocities on SC/ST and Weaker Section. Sharma is the officer who had hit headlines in 2018 during his stint as Joint Director, CBI following several reports suggesting that he went on a collision course with the then CBI special director Rakesh Asthana who also belongs to Gujarat cadre.
Sharma was recently repatriated to his parent cadre from central deputation and was awaiting posting. The 1987-batch IPS officer is slated for superannuation on January 31. The state government issued a notification stating, "State government is please to promote Arun Kumar Sharma, IPS (GJ-1987), who is awaiting for posting on his repatriation to parent cadre from central deputation, to DGP Grade HAG+Scale of Pay Level 16 in the Pay Matrix of Rs2.05.400-2.24.400 and appointed on the vacant ex-cadre post of Director General of Police (Prevention of Atrocities on SC/ST and Weaker Section), Gandhinagar..."
In 2015, Sharma was transferred from Gujarat and appointed as Joint Director, CBI, New Delhi. In 2018, during a spat that broke out between then CBI director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Ashtana, Sharma found himself in major controversy. Asthana alleged in a letter that Sharma was allegedly associated with several shell companies in which his family members were directors. After the spat took several urgly turns, both the Gujarat cadre officers were shunted out. Sharma was transferred to CRPF as Additional DG.
Meanwhile, the government also promoted and transferred several other IPS officers including Premvir Singh as Additional Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Chaitanya Mandlik as Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCB, considered an important post which was vacant for the past four months. The government also promoted Inspector General of Police, 1996-batch IPS officers, to Additional DGP. The officers include Narsimha Komar, Prafulla Kumar Roushan and Rajkumar Pandian.